Cry For Me, Laugh For Me
by Kuragari Kagirinai
Summary: Roxas never was the cheerful twin, Sora was. How could he be? With a brother like Cloud, pissy "best friends", transferring schools, a robotic mother, and all around endless drama in his life? Nope. No way HE'D be the cheerful one. Akuroku
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This fic here is mainly rated for vulgarity, sexual references, use of drugs and alcohol, notty words etc., etc., and the usual. XD Parings are Akuroku, Cleon, touches of Soku and Zemyx, and maybe some others in later chapters.

I really, _really _tried to make this fic as _realistic _as possible. Key word: tried. ;) And also, this is my first KH fic. -faints- So, uhm, yeah. Be nice. XD

ENJOY! :D

**Cry For Me, Laugh For Me**

Roxas sniffled slightly and rubbed his eyes. This was weird. He didn't even know why he was crying. One minute he was watching TV and the next he felt overwhelming sadness creep up on him like some sort of plague. He had shut off the television and quickly ran to his room, ignoring all the strange stares he received from his family, just to crawl up on his bed and let the warm tears travel down his face.

He briefly wondered exactly where Sora was, but he remembered that his lively twin was off with his friends Riku and Kairi. They were probably out having a great time, just like they did everyday. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't jealous or anything - actually he really wasn't fond of Riku or Kairi, but he did miss having Sora around. Cloud was great and all, but he was too much like… himself.

With a sigh Roxas pushed himself out of his messy bed and went to the window. The sun was just beginning to set. He placed his palm on the cooling pane of glass. Idly he glanced at his reflection. He looked so transparent, as if he wasn't really there, just… existing. And really, that's exactly how he felt at the moment. Like he was just there - just existed.

He stood in silence, watching the sky grow steadily darker and darker as his reflection grew more and more visible. It was all so ironic. He felt a small chuckle bubble its way up his throat, but it never met his lips, it seemed to die off before it could reach out of him.

"Roxas!" he jumped at the singsong sound of his own name and turned around to find Sora standing in his doorway. "What're you doing in here? It's really dark," as he said that he flipped on the light switch that Roxas had ignored earlier on his 'trip' to his bed.

"Nothing really," Roxas muttered. He sighed and ran a hand through his blond locks.

Sora nodded and took a seat on the foot of Roxas' bed. "Olette called earlier, like two minutes ago, asking for you, but Cloud said you were… busy?"

Roxas nodded. "Just a little."

"But you said you weren't really doing anything," Sora whined. Roxas gave his twin a dull look. Sora could be such a child, but he wasn't going to harp on him for it. It was part of what made Sora, Sora.

"Not anymore," he said with a sigh. He moved away from the now dark window and sat next to Sora on his bed. "Have fun?" he asked out of politeness. He knew that Sora _always _seemed to have fun, even if he went to the most dreary place on the planet, he came home with a good story to tell and a laugh.

"Yeah… I guess so." Roxas perked up slightly from the unusual answer. Sora should be blabbing to him, giving him a play by play recap of his entire day.

"You… guess?" he asked hesitantly and looked at Sora closer, as if he was an insect under a microscope. His eyes went wide when he noticed that Sora's cheek was red and beginning to swell slightly around the edges. He instantly felt himself grow angry and he grabbed hold of Sora's hands so the brunet would look at him. "Sora what happened?" he all but demanded.

"It's not anything. I… I tripped and hit my face on the branch of a tree. That's all. You don't have to worry or anything." Roxas narrowed his eyes at his brother. He knew Sora was lying. Not only about hitting his face on a tree branch of all things, but that he didn't want him to worry. If that was the case, he wouldn't have even come in here in the first place. "Really Roxas, I'll be fine. I… I should go to bed now. School starts tomorrow anyway. Remember? A new school, new people, new… everything!"

"Oh…" was all Roxas managed to say before looking out his window. He knew Sora wasn't exactly happy about leaving his old school and Kairi, but he also knew that he was excited that now he'd be able to go to the same school as Riku. Roxas understood that right now Sora almost felt as if he were picking and choosing. But really the only person who had a say in this matter was their mother, so he wasn't sure why Sora was beating himself up over it. Roxas chanced a glance at his brother. It looked as if someone else was beating him up over it.

Sora stood up and walked to the door. He placed his hand on the frame of the door and slid his hand down the smooth wood, obviously lost in thought. "Hey Roxas?" he said quietly a moment later.

"Yeah?"

"I know you don't believe me," he said in a slightly strained voice and looked up at the ceiling. Roxas blinked a few times and felt tears prick at the sides of his eyes. "But that's okay. I wouldn't believe myself either." Roxas shook his head. He wanted to laugh at how pathetic Sora was acting about his whole thing, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Sora gave a soft chuckle. "I'll see you in the morning Rox," he said and flashed his twin a smile. "It'll be fun! I promise!"

Roxas nodded and watched his brother leave. He lay back on his bed and stared up at his ceiling. He smirked slightly at the silly promise his twin had made. Promising that school would be fun? Only Sora would say something ridiculous like that. He rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes, pulling up his blankest as he did so. Slowly the blond teen fell asleep, not caring that his light was still on and that he was fully dressed.

oOo

"Rox… Hey wake up you bum!" Roxas groaned and pulled his blankets up over his face to try and rid himself of the nuisance that was known as Sora. But it seemed that his twin would have none of that and jumped up on his bed. "Rooooxaasssss." Sora cooed right in the blonde's ear, "Wakey, wakey eggs and bakey."

Roxas groaned and pushed his brother off of him. "That doesn't even make sense," he grumbled as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

Sora smiled at his groggy twin. "Who said it had to?" he laughed as Roxas' brows furrowed in annoyance.

"Get out so I can get dressed." Sora chuckled and left, leaving a scowling Roxas in his wake. He pulled on one of his favorite outfits of gray denim pants, a black shirt, and his white and black checkered patterned jacket along with his checkered wrist band, and his rings. He was extremely grateful that, unlike their previous school, they didn't have to wear uniforms in order to actually get in the building. He picked up his hairbrush and ran it through his hair in a half hearted attempt to keep it from spiking out. Not that it did much anyway.

He put the brush down to look at his reflection in his mirror. He just shrugged at what he saw and trudged downstairs to eat breakfast and encounter his painful first day of school. When he got downstairs he wasn't surprised to find Cloud making breakfast as Sora pulled on his yellow shoes with a pout on his face. The sight agitated him.

"So, what's the occasion?" he asked Cloud grimly as he took a seat at their kitchen table.

"Mother's on a business trip again." Sora answered for him. Roxas rolled his eyes as Cloud made quotation signals when Sora said 'business'.

He sighed, "How long this time?"

Cloud flipped a pancake before moving to the counter to grab a crumpled up piece of paper and tossing it to Roxas, who caught it without a second thought. He unraveled the paper and read the neatly written note as Sora moved behind him to do the same. They were beginning to see her handwriting more than the woman herself.

"She left us three hundred dollars this time? How long is she going to be gone then?" Sora asked no one in particular.

"Well, last time she left us a hundred fifty and was gone for a little over a month… I'd say probably around three months?" Roxas guessed and looked to Cloud for confirmation. He was slightly irked when Cloud didn't even bother to so much as nod in agreement or something.

Sora scuffed his feet slightly on the tile floor. "Sorry Cloud," he said. His eyes refused to meet those of his older brother.

"Don't worry about it Sora," Cloud said. Roxas couldn't help but feel envious. Of course Cloud would answer Sora even when it wasn't even called for, but he wouldn't even give his two cents to Roxas when asked. Sometimes he couldn't help but think his brother was a prick. But Cloud was Cloud, and he had his reasons.

Whenever their mother left on one of her trips, the three brothers were always left to fend for themselves with whatever money their mother left them and the small wage that Cloud earned at his part-time job at a local plant nursery. What he did Roxas wasn't sure, but it had to do with flowers… and lifting things.

"Well," Roxas said with a sigh as he got up to grab some dishes to set the table, "That certainly puts a damper on things this morning."

Sora sighed and began to help his twin. "Not really. There's still school to look forward to!" Both Roxas and Cloud snorted. "What? Aren't you two excited too?" Sora asked with a pout.

"Sora…" Cloud began shifting a little uncomfortably at his spot in front of the stove.

Roxas sighed and took pity on his older brother. He was just too socially awkward, something Sora knew nothing about. "You at least have Riku. We don't know anyone other than each other."

"Oh…" Sora seemed put-off for a moment before he brightened up. "Then you guys can just make friends." He made it sound like it was so simple. Roxas and Cloud exchanged similar looks of 'he wishes' and 'that's not going to happen'. It was bad enough they were changing schools, but it was also in the middle of the school year. The decision had been extremely random on their mother's part and none of her sons had the heart – or courage – to try and argue with her decision.

"At least Cloud has it easy," Roxas said twiddling a fork between two of his fingers. "One semester of this school and he's done for good. Seniors get it easy."

Sora smacked Roxas on the head lightly. "No! Cloud had to leave behind Zack and Aerith! And it's his last year! At least we have two more ahead of us!"

Roxas scowled and swatted at his brother. "So? You can't make me feel sorry for Cloud, Sora! I'm leaving Olette, Pence, _and _Hayner! So don't try and give me any grief!"

Cloud watched his younger brothers as they began to 'play fight' as some would call it. Sora would whine something and jump on Roxas, where Roxas would push him off and grunt in response. These two could play push and shove for hours as he had found out when they were younger. It was always best to let the two solve their problems this way.

He waited a few minutes after he had placed breakfast on the table before clearing his throat to gain the twins' attention. "Want breakfast?" he asked with an amused smirk.

"You bet!" Sora sang out and left Roxas alone for the time being to take his place at the table. As the three brothers piled their plates with food, Sora felt the extreme need to break the comfortable silence. "I think you guys will make lots of friends," he said before shoving a forkful of pancakes in his mouth.

Both Roxas and Cloud nodded, knowing that it was useless to try and argue with the brunet any further. He was just too optimistic. As they finished Cloud glanced up at the clock and sighed. "Alright. Let's go. We'll do the dishes when we get back." He grabbed his keys and twirled them as he waited for his brothers. Roxas was trying to put on his shoes with Sora standing behind him cheering him on, making Roxas grumble something about not needing a cheerleader thank-you-very-much.

"Okay Cloud we're ready! Let's go!" Sora exclaimed gleefully. He seemed to be bouncing in his shoes while Roxas was just… sulking next to him. They really were just like opposites.

"Alright." He followed Sora and Roxas out to his car. Sora jumped in the passenger seat as he clambered into the driver's seat. Roxas just plopped himself into the back seat and lay across the seats with a bored look. Cloud sighed. "Seatbelts," he said quietly and yet demanded all at once. Sora snapped his on without hesitation and Roxas took the middle one, weaved around his hips and clipped it closed so he could remain laying down. He sighed again. Why did Roxas have to be so stubborn?

As they drove towards their new school –which happened to be _further_ away than their old one, Sora turned around in his seat to pout at Roxas. "You know that wouldn't be so uncomfortable if you just sat up," he said when Roxas began to shift around to avoid the metal clasps from poking into his hip.

Roxas sent him an annoyed glance. "Same would go for you if you just turned around."

Sora's pout intensified and he turned around, crossing his arms across his chest. Roxas watched his twin for a moment before feeling guilty and sitting up as if to apologize to his twenty five minute older brother. Sora caught his movement and turned around again with a large grin plastered on his face. "Better?" he asked.

Roxas sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He gave his brother a small smile before muttering, "Much."

For the rest of the ride to school Roxas watched the scenery pass through the car window while Sora chatted loudly to Cloud. He felt that this whole situation was completely wrong. Switching schools in the middle of the year wasn't something that really sat well with Roxas. Of course there was no way that he could prevent any sort of change from happening, but this was ridiculous and he was glad that at least Cloud agreed with him on that.

Finally they reached the school and Cloud parked the furthest possible from the doors. Roxas understood that Cloud didn't exactly like trying to get close to others, but when that quality interfered with his ability to park closer to the school so his walk of shame would be shorter, then you knew that he had a problem.

It seemed as if Sora was thinking on the same lines as him –as he usually was – and turned to Cloud with another pout. "Cloouuud! Why did you park miles away from the school? My legs are going to fall off before we even reach the doors." Roxas guessed that Sora was waiting for Cloud to put the keys in the ignition and go park somewhere closer, so when Cloud just got out of the car, the frustrated groan that Sora let out was justified.

Roxas followed Cloud's example and got out of the car, Sora right behind him. The twins stood side by side as Cloud marched up to the school as if he'd been here every day of his life. Sora looked to Roxas, a little fear and anxiety showing through his once impenetrable excitement. He offered an arm out to Roxas, silently pleading for him to hook his own around it. Something they had done all the time when they were younger.

"For old times' sake." Sora said, a little unsure of how his brother would answer him. Roxas just nodded and hooked his arm around Sora's. They walked together to the entrance of the school, ignoring all the curious stares that they got from all the other students in the parking lot.

When they were finally inside the building both boys stood arm in arm, slightly confused. "So uh, do you know where the Admission Office thing is, Roxas?"

"Why would I know where it's at?"

"Well… I dunno." Roxas rolled his eyes at his twin. Really, he couldn't believe that Sora was the older one. "We should've just followed Cloud. He seemed to know where he was going."

Roxas snorted. "I bet he's wandering the halls hopelessly lost right now."

"Yeah, probably," Sora agreed.

"Excuse me." Both Sora and Roxas' gazes snapped towards the new voice. "I-I overheard your conversation… and… I can show you to the office if – if you'd like."

Roxas looked the girl that had approached them over. She was rather petite and almost sickly looking. Her long, pale blonde hair fell into her startling blue eyes. The poor girl was shaking like a small frightened animal. It must have taken all of her courage just to approach the twins.

"That'd be great!" Sora sang out, unhooking his arm from Roxas' to greet the girl properly with a handshake. "I'm Sora! And this gloomy guy here is my twin, Roxas!"

When Roxas didn't respond, Sora elbowed him in the ribs. "Ugh – H-hey…" he grunted out.

The girl smiled shyly and nodded. "I'm Naminé." She paused before waving them towards her. "Just follow me."

Roxas and Sora exchanged glances before following the pale girl. Roxas wondered briefly if she was an angel, or something along those lines. She just seemed to be so pure, so… innocent. He didn't feel right around her. But then again, he could just be nervous. She was really pretty after all.

He took his eyes off the blonde and rested his gaze on Sora. He was glancing about, taking in the school and mumbling about Riku, who had yet to show up. Roxas fumbled in his pocket for a moment to pull out his cell phone and look at the time. Unlike Sora he didn't wear a wrist watch, so he relied on his phone – not that he ever really cared for the time anyway, and of course they were pretty early for school; Riku probably wouldn't even be awake yet. Lucky bastard.

Naminé paused in her steps briefly before falling into step next to Sora. "Are… you two new then?"

Roxas grimaced while Sora linked his fingers together and pushed them out in front of him. "Yup, and our brother Cloud is too. We're coming here from Destiny High! My friend Riku comes here, but I haven't seen him yet, it's pretty disappointing… Have you seen him?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. _Don't forget to tell her your shoe size while you're at it, Sora._ He thought. Sora looked at him and pulled off a small glare, one that would most likely attract kittens to come and lap at his face.

Naminé, who didn't take notice of the small interaction, shook her head slowly. "No I haven't seen him." She said quietly.

"Oh." Sora seemed to deflate slightly. "Are you a friend of his?"

Naminé shook her head again, her smile thinning. "No. Riku is… too popular, to be my friend."

Roxas choked on a laugh, making it sound more like he'd inhaled a bug. With some difficulty he cleared his throat, "Riku? _Popular_? You've _got _to be kidding me." Sora gave another huff and elbowed him for the second time.

Naminé's smile twitched upwards slightly. "You really _are _new to this school, aren't you?"

"I thought we established this already." Roxas muttered as Sora laughed good naturedly.

"Here's the office. I'm guessing that you're going to get your schedules?" Naminé asked as she stopped in front of a heavy wooden door that stood out against the white painted walls.

"No, we're going to a party," Roxas said and pushed his way past the girl and into the room. She looked slightly bewildered before settling on a small frown.

Sora shot her an apologetic look. "Sorry about him. He's not really a morning person," he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Or much of a day person, or night person either." He gave a sigh and shrugged his shoulders. "He takes some getting used to. But once you do, he's a good guy."

Naminé giggled, placing a hand over her mouth. "It's alright." She straightened, "What grade are you in? Perhaps we'll have some classes together?"

"We're sophomores."

Naminé's smile grew. "Me too! Maybe I'll see you two around." She gave him a parting wave and smile before heading off to her first hour.

Sora made his way into the office with a smile. He found Roxas leaning against the secretary's desk, back to the woman and arms folded. He looked up at Sora's entrance and sighed. "It's about time you got in here," he said and stood. He held out a piece of paper to Sora but snatched it away before the brunet could grab it. "This one's mine. You have to get your own because they thought I was going to sabotage yours somehow if they let me even look at a printout of your schedule."

Sora laughed. "Rox, you've got to stop being so impatient." Sora poked his twin in the face before moving over to the secretary. She was a middle aged woman, had curly black hair and thick glasses with plastic rims. Her beaded necklace clicked loudly as she moved to answer the phone, completely ignoring the waiting brunet in front of her.

"Hello this is the Admissions Office, this is Elena speaking."

Sora waited patiently as the woman rambled on the phone. Drumming his fingers on the hard wood of the desk, he allowed his eyes to scan over the sporadically placed papers on the desk. There were notes to teachers and students from parents and the like, medical documents for staff and students, a calendar, and there at the far end were some papers with both his and Cloud's name on them.

"Hey umm…" the woman hushed him with a finger to her lips and a glare to kill in her eyes. Sora looked over to the paper longingly. He just wanted to get out of here and find Riku. He could just reach out and grab the paper really fast. It was within his reach. But… what if the secretary got mad? He let out a frustrated sigh.

Roxas was soon next to him, giving the secretary an irritated glance. "This sucks," he said blandly. Sora nodded and continued to stare at the paper, fighting an internal battle. To grab or not to grab? Roxas followed his gaze. "Hey that's your schedule." He reached over, grabbed the paper and headed to the door.

"R-Roxas! Wait!" Sora yelled as the secretary squawked indigently at them. He closed the door firmly behind him and scrambled after Roxas down the hall. "Why'd you do that?"

"Hn. The only class we have together is… P.E.?" Roxas glared down at his schedule for a moment. "When the hell did I sign up for _P.E?_"

Sora sighed and smoothed out a wrinkle on Roxas' jacket, it was a nervous habit he had – fixing other people clothes. "Remember you had to take it? It's required here and you're supposed to take it as a freshman, so we decided to take a general P.E. class instead of being stuck with a bunch of freshies."

"Yeah yeah, I remember now." Roxas handed Sora his own schedule. "I'm just used to having more classes with you than this."

"Well… Didn't our classes just transfer over?" Sora asked. Curiously he glanced over at Roxas' schedule and gaped. "Roxas!"

"What?"

"Why do just about all of your classes say advanced in front of them?" He frowned. "That's not really fair you know. We're twins; we should both have the same amount of smarts."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Same amount of smarts?" he repeated.

"Yeah, I mean seriously Rox, you're taking like, junior level classes."

Roxas blinked at Sora, Sora blinked at Roxas for blinking. "It's not my fault I do my school work, unlike some people."

Sora's face scrunched in annoyance. "But Roxassss!" he whined.

"But nothing. I'm going to wander the halls to look for my _advanced _chemistry class." The blond waved Sora off as he chose a hall to begin searching for his class.

Sora let out a little huff of annoyance and stamped his foot. This wasn't exactly how he'd planned his first day of school to go. He looked down on his schedule dejectedly. First hour: History._ Fun_. Not. He took a glance down the white halls. People were starting to fill them, some heading to class, others lingering to chat with friends, and few just… milling about.

"Yo, Sora," a cold hand was placed on the brunet's shoulder, making him jump.

"Eep!" the teen squeaked out as his hands shot up to cover his face. He turned around slowly to meet strands of silver and an amused smirk. Instantly recognizing the face, Sora removed his hands from his face to place them on the other's shoulders. "Riku!" he gasped and shook the older teen's shoulders. "Where have you _been_?"

Riku, with some effort, unclasped Sora from his shoulders and chuckled. "I've been looking for you for a while now. Have you gotten your schedule yet?"

Sora nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! See here?" he pushed the paper in front of Riku's nose, "I have history first hour." He said and grimaced.

Riku smirked, "Sounds like fun," he commented offhandedly.

"That's what I thought!" Sora chirped. He glanced around with a smile; the halls were getting really crowded now. "You want to help me find my class then?" he asked, cocking his head to the side curiously.

"And that's what I'm here for!" Riku said and slung an arm around Sora's shoulders. "I can't believe you're actually here. I mean when you first told me you were transferring, I thought you were just pulling my leg, but then last… night…" The subject trailed off suddenly and the two friends were left in its quiet wake.

The loud sound of sneakers slapping against tile brought the teens to their senses, along with everyone else in the hall. "Rikuuuu!" a bodiless voice called out from the crowd.

Riku sighed and rubbed his forehead wearily. "Here it comes," he mumbled.

"Here what comes?" Sora asked confused.

Before either knew it, a long arm slithered its way around Riku's neck and pried him away from Sora. "Riku! You didn't wait for me at the doors today! Is there a reason you're being such a prick to me?" Sora couldn't help but stare at the redhead that was all but smothering Riku in his chest and talking animatedly to seemingly no one. Suddenly Sora felt extremely awkward and shifted his weight around slightly. The redhead took notice of this and instantly stopped suffocating Riku to study Sora better. "And what do we have here? Is this the fresh meat that Riku's been talking about?"

Sora fought back a gasp of shock. "F-fresh meat?" he repeated, confusion evident in his voice.

"Axel, leave the kid be." Riku turned to Sora and clapped him on the back reassuringly. "Sora, this is one of my buds, Axel. And Axel, this is my long time friend, Sora. He just transferred here."

Axel looked Sora up and down, and Sora couldn't shake the feeling of being undressed with the redhead's eyes. "Cute," the redhead said after an uncomfortable pause. "I approve!" he bellowed suddenly. Sora just blinked owlishly.

"Right. Good for you Axel." Riku turned back to Sora, "Now, we were headed to your history class, right?"

"Right!"Sora beamed. As he began to turn in the direction that Riku had motioned to, a sudden, horrible thought occurred to him. "Oh no!" he exclaimed, making both Riku and the retreating Axel look at him worriedly. "Roxas is going to get lost!"

Riku scratched the back of his head for a moment, sending some silver strands array. "Well, now that I think about it… Where is he exactly? Didn't I tell you guys to wait for me?"

Sora gave an exasperated sigh. "_I _did! But Cloud said he refused to be carted around by a _junior _and Roxas just walked off saying he'd find his own _advanced _chemistry class."

"Sora… There isn't an advanced chemistry class." Riku said, a small amused smirk playing on his lips. He waited patiently as Sora sucked in an irritated hiss.

"I _knew _he was being sarcastic!" the brunet pouted; clear, oceanic blue eyes squinting in slight frustration. "So… that means he's on his way to chemistry." He looked forlornly down at his own pathetic schedule. His science class was just Earth Science, a crap class that he'd taken for some easy science credit.

"Oh hey!" Axel said suddenly, a sharp grin crossing his features. "I'm headed to chemistry right now. What's this Roxas kid look like? I can find him on my way there."

Both the brunet and Riku pointed to Sora.

"He looks like him."

"He looks like me." They said in unison.

Axel blinked a few times, his sharp green eyes clouded slightly with confusion. He pointed a long finger at Sora. "He… looks like you?"

Sora nodded. "But he has blond hair."

"And he's a major grouch." Riku added needlessly, earning him an elbow in the ribs. "What? That kid is moodier than Larxene sometimes!" Another elbow. "Ouch! Why do you keep doing that?"

Axel raised an eyebrow at the display but shrugged. "Okay, I'll just keep my eyes peeled for a blond, moody Sora." Without another word, the redhead took off down the hall, plowing over people that didn't react fast enough to move out of his way.

Sora looked to Riku, slightly confused. "Well, he's… nice?"

Riku chuckled, his aquamarine eyes shining mirthfully. "He takes some getting used to."

oOo

**Okay, well, that's chapter one. :D**

I hope to update every other week. I've written _extremely _far ahead, so I shouldn't have a problem keeping up with that promise for a good while. :D

It would be absolutely lovely if you reviewed. I want to know if ya'll love it, hate it, prefer if I burned in Hell… :) Thank you.


	2. Chapter Two

**A/N: **This fic here is mainly rated for **vulgarity**, sexual references, use of **drugs** and **alcohol**, notty words, reality, **sex**,etc., etc., and the usual. XD Parings are Akuroku, Cleon, touches of Soku and Zemyx, and maybe some others in later chapters.

I want to thank those that reviewed, and those that alerted. I aim to please. :)

**Cry For Me, Laugh For Me**

_Chapter Two_

Roxas grumbled as he stumbled down a nearly empty hall. It seemed no one was upstairs in the morning, unless they were in class already. He looked back down at his schedule. Room 314. This door was 313, and the next was… 317? What the hell was this? Were the rooms numbered by a fucking drunken monkey or something?

Roxas let out a frustrated growl. This was insane! Exactly how was he supposed to find his classroom before class even started and he was locked out? He didn't want to be stuck in a damn detention room all first period. Sighing slowly to himself, he ran a hand through his blond locks. This really wasn't working out as he had planned. Maybe he should just find the detention room instead? At this point that made much more sense.

He was thrown out of his mental banter when a foreign hand and arm wound its way around his neck. Automatically he knew that it wasn't anyone he knew, because he made it known to _everyone _that his neck should never be touched. Ever. It was just too sensitive and any touch made him shiver unpleasantly to the point he felt he would gag.

His first reaction was always to remove the offending limb. With an angry growl he elbowed the offender as hard as he could in the ribs. He just never expected the offender to be so tall, so when all he got was an elbow full of stomach, he frowned slightly.

When the arm was removed from his neck to clutch the injured stomach, Roxas jumped away and turned to his attacker. "Who are you?" he demanded angrily.

The tall redhead gave out a breathy laugh as he rubbed his stomach. "Uhh, Riku was right. Damn moody."

Roxas' eyes narrowed. "Riku? What?" he paused for a second while the redhead caught his breath, "I am _not _moody!" he ground out suddenly, "Who _the hell_ are you?" he raised a fist towards the taller teen.

The redhead put his hands up in surrender. "Whoa there billy! Calm down!" He gave a toothy grin. "I'm Axel. And based on what Sora and Riku told me, you're Roxas."

"Axel, huh?" Roxas said, lowering his fist, his face turned from surprised anger to mild interest. "Well, Axel," his face contorted into pure irritation. "Who the _hell _gave you the right to go and _touch _me like that?"

Axel frowned slightly. "Geez, you sure are touchy." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well, that's something we'll just have to fix!"

Roxas gave an irritated sigh. Who the hell was this guy? Really? And why wouldn't he leave him alone? Was some alone time to sulk in his own misery too much to ask for? "Okay, fine, whatever. Just tell me. What do you want?"

With a small wink Axel made to put his arm around Roxas' neck again, eliciting a growl from the blond, before flailing slightly and settling for using a shoulder as an arm rest. "I want to show you to chemistry class! Directions are compliments of Riku and Sora."

Roxas fixed Axel with a blank stare. "Won't you be late to your class then?"

"Nope! If you're on time, then so am I!" at Roxas' confused glance, he elaborated. "We have the same first hour Roxie!" Roxas visibly flinched at the nickname, but said nothing. Axel, taking slight concern, decided to change the subject. "You know all this time, Riku's been gabbing to me about Sora, but not once did he mention that Sora had any brothers."

Roxas gave a hollow smile to Axel. "No one ever does." Without further notice he began to walk down the hall. Axel had to yank on his shirt collar to get him to turn around and go the right way; to the dismay of Roxas.

"What do you mean 'no one ever does'?" Axel asked once they were going in the correct direction.

"Did you know I was Sora's twin?" Roxas shot back rubbing his abused neck.

Axel stared for a moment. "Well, no. I mean you two look a helluva lot alike, but I wouldn't go so far as to automatically assume…"

"Good," Roxas said, picking up the conversation just as Axel was about to drop it. "I hate people that do that."

Axel just nodded as he steered the teen down an intersecting hall. But damn was Roxas blunt! It was almost to the point that it was scary. Like the blond _had _to get his point across before it was too late, before the attention was turned to someone else.

"Well, we're here," Axel said after the rest of the silent trip.

"Yeah, okay, thanks," Roxas mumbled before pushing the door open just as the warning bell sounded off.

Axel made a b-line for his desk and waved Roxas towards one next to him. Roxas just ignored the teen and went to introduce himself to the teacher and point out that, yes, he was the new kid.

"Ah," the teacher, a rather creepy man with long blond hair, said, "You must be Roxas Strife. It's not often we have students younger than junior year take this course- although it may be different at your old school, Oblivion High is _nothing _like your beloved Destiny High."

Roxas gave a critical, yet impassive look to his teacher. He didn't like him very much. "Try me."

The man raised a slightly amused brow. "I am _Professor _Vexen. Not Mister. Now wait here a brief moment so you can introduce yourself to the class."

Now Roxas found this to be completely unnecessary. He didn't have to introduce himself to _no one_. Not unless he felt like it. So when the final bell rang and a few more students took their seats, chatting leisurely, Professor Vexen clapped his hands once and the room was dead silent. It was pretty spooky.

"Now, class," Professor Vexen began in a small, yet cold and authoritative voice. "We have a new student today." A few of the student's gazes moved from their professor to Roxas, who scowled. "This," Professor Vexen moved behind Roxas, "Is Roxas Strife, a sophomore here at Oblivion High."

"_What?_" came a squawk from someone in the small class. Professor Vexen raised a brow at the offender in the class. A lanky girl with brown hair and bright green eyes stood up, hands on her hips. "Professor Vexen, there is _no way _that that kid made it in this class! I mean really… He… He's _blond_!"

Roxas' scowl deepened and he took a step forward. "What does being blond have to do with anything?" he challenged.

Professor Vexen placed a chilly hand on Roxas' shoulder. The blond stiffened immediately, rooted to the spot. "Selphie," Professor Vexen said his voice low. "Do not disrupt my class in such a fashion again." The girl fell to her seat with a pout, refusing to meet her professor's icy glare. "As for the rest of you, treat him with respect until he fails, _that _is when you can humiliate him. Not when he is a member of our class.

"Now, Roxas, introduce yourself."

Roxas glanced back at his teacher. Didn't he already do that for him? He just gave a sigh of defeat and turned back to the class. He never really realized how many people were actually in here. Four. He could count them on one hand. Crazy.

He cleared his throat and tried not to look at the redhead that was staring so eagerly at him. It was freaking creepy. "I'm Roxas."

"Annnnd?" Axel said from his seat, a small grin playing across his smooth face.

"And, I transferred from Destiny High." Roxas ground out.

"Annnnd?" Axel said again. Roxas rolled his eyes. He'd had enough of this crap.

"And now I'm taking my seat. Hey, Naminé." Roxas did everything in his power to remain casual, while he was fuming on the inside. He blatantly ignored the pout on Axel's face, the scowl on that Selphie girls face, the indifferent look from the guy in the corner, and took a seat next to the girl he had met earlier that morning.

"Hello Roxas," she said, sending him a delicate smile.

He grunted, put his feet up on the seat in front of him, grabbed a ball point pen and a notebook as Professor Vexen dove straight into the lesson without bothering to see if Roxas was struggling or not.

Roxas, being the wonder student he was, had no trouble taking notes on key points, leaning over to Naminé's desk to skim her book pages, and getting an overall idea of what he had to study and what he could blow off. It wasn't really all that hard, it just took the right kind of focus.

"And this type of bond would be…?" Professor Vexen trailed off, the question hanging in the air as he looked around his classroom for a victim. He let his eyes rest upon an unaware Roxas, who was scribbling down a quick note. "Roxas." He said, a smirk playing on his lips.

Roxas jumped slightly, unhitching his shoulders to sit up properly. Professor Vexen's smirk widened, he had the blond right where he wanted… or so he thought. "Ionic," Roxas answered with a shrug.

"Hm." Professor Vexen's smirk faltered before firmly reasserting itself. "And what is another name for an ionic bond Mr. Strife?"

The blond blinked. He didn't like being called Mr. Strife. That was a named used for his non-existent father, and occasionally for Cloud. But not him. He was Roxas. Nothing else. "Electrovalent."

Professor Vexen paused to eye Roxas strangely, before continuing the lesson without another glance in the blonds' direction, and for that he was grateful.

The rest of the class went without incident. Roxas was a little worried about a grade in that class; having such an intense class that early in the morning was definitely going to be a challenge. As he headed out the door, he was able to snatch up a book, with Professor Vexen's knowledge of course, and he made for his second hour doing his best to ignore the redhead idiot that was following him.

oOo

Cloud punched the cold brick wall as the final bell rang. Where the hell was the office in this godforsaken place? It's not like it was on the second floor, or the third… and definitely not the fourth, so he'd stayed on the first, but still no luck. Exactly how big was this place? And they didn't have to wear uniforms? Fucking messed up.

He pushed his forehead against the cool surface and spread his fists out against it as well. He just needed to calm down. Take a deep breath or two to clear his head and then keep on looking. He was bound to stumble across it sooner or later.

"Hey kid, you're late for class."

Cloud looked up from the bleak white wall to glare at the intruder. This was getting really annoying. "I'm not a damned kid."

The intruder was a well built man with brown hair and stormy eyes, colors like grays and greens swirling about in a maelstrom around a black pupil. It was something Cloud had never seen before. The leather clad male didn't make a single comment, as if waiting for the blond to do something. Cloud narrowed his eyes at the man. Wasn't leather against the dress code around here? He had to give up his boots and wear sneakers, _sneakers_, while this guy could parade around in a leather jacket _and _pants. Now he was getting pissed.

"Who _the __**fuck **_are you?" Cloud ground out angrily. Today was going from bad to a nightmare in less than twenty minutes.

The brunet just raised his brows at Cloud's demand in a way that made the blond want to knock his lights out. Finally, after a long pause, the brunet spoke. "What's your first class?"

"Dunno," Cloud said, doing his best to send death threats with just his eyes.

"You're one of those new kids." A statement. Cloud just shrugged. He was tired of talking. The brunet took a step forward and extended a hand, covered in fingerless leather gloves. Cloud couldn't help but glare at the appendage. "Leon."

Blinking a few times, Cloud looked up from the leather clad hand to its owner's stony face. Weird. He reached out and shook the man's hand, relishing the feel of the coarse fabric against his bare hand. "Cloud," he replied.

They stared at each other for a brief moment, a moment that just wasn't brief enough for Cloud. "Lost?"

"No," he lied. When Leon didn't leave, he just shrugged his shoulders slightly. Leon gave him some weird unreadable look. He couldn't tell if the other man was pissed or amused…or maybe constipated. It was strange, and yet refreshing at the same time. He was tired of people spilling out their emotions and thoughts to him. He got enough of that at home from Sora, and occasionally Roxas. He didn't need any more than that.

"Right." His stormy eyes flicked down the hall before returning to Cloud's face. "Follow me."

As Leon turned around and began to walk off, Cloud followed him with little hesitation. He had the slightest idea as to where the brunet was headed, but at least he'd get somewhere. He'd probably end up missing most of his classes today because he couldn't find anywhere he was supposed to be. Hell if he cared anyway, it's not like school was going to help him in the future anyway. You don't exactly need history or English to be a mechanic.

The blond followed his leather clad companion down what seemed to be random halls until they reached a wooden door contrasting painfully with the white walls, the letters A.O. were basically glued above it.

"This is the admissions office. You can get your schedule here." Leon said in a bland tone. He leaned against the wall and watched Cloud.

Cloud just blinked a few times. He swore he walked past this door about five times! But at the moment he was too mad at himself to be embarrassed, so he just grumbled a few choice words under his breath and marched into the office. The woman in the office barely gave him a glance as he marched up to her desk.

"I need my schedule," he said flatly.

"Well," the woman said with a huff. Cloud really didn't like this woman's attitude. "Don't you think you're just a bit too late?"

Cloud narrowed his eyes. "I'm aware of that. Just give me my schedule so I don't have to be later than I already am."

The woman glared at him from behind thick rimmed glasses before handing him a sheet of paper. "I can see you three brothers are going to be quite the handful," she said, tapping her painted nails against the hard wood of her desk. "You'll have to report straight to the detention hall, you can't just waltz into class now, you'll interrupt the lesson."

"Whatever." He pushed open the door and stood in front of it as it closed behind him. He glanced over his schedule. Ugh, he had _creative writing_ this hour. Definitely one he planned on skipping often. And… Machine Shop was last? He had to wait _all day_ just for Machine Shop? This was fucking nuts! At least he was still able to leave early for work.

"Ready?" Cloud nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Leon's voice. He' thought that the other man had left.

"For what?" he countered uncertainly.

Leon gave a hint of a smirk, but maybe it was just a shadow, Cloud wasn't sure. "For detention."

"Oh," he gave a shrug. "Whatever." Leon nodded and pushed himself off the wall. Cloud followed the brunet silently up three flights of stairs and to a classroom off in a secluded corner of the fourth floor. Leon opened the door and ushered Cloud inside and into an empty desk. Cloud noticed how there was no one else in the room.

"The floors are sectioned off by grade." Leon stated randomly as he seated himself at the large desk in front of the room. "Freshmen classes get bottom floor, senior's top."

Cloud blinked uncertainly. He didn't really care about the pecking order right now. He wanted to know why the hell he was alone with this guy in a rather secluded room in the middle of first hour when everyone else was still drowsy and not likely to hear him scream…

"Why are we the only one's here?" he asked bluntly. Really, he hated beating around the bush. It got on his nerves.

"No," Leon said and relaxed further into his padded chair, "_You're_ the only one here."

Cloud absorbed what the brunet said quietly. "So," he said after a thoughtful pause, "you're a teacher then?"

This time Leon _did _smirk. "No. This hour I have S.A."

"S.A.?" Cloud asked with a confused cock of his head.

"Staff Assistant. Didn't you have that at Destiny?" Leon set his feet up on the clean wooden desk. Leather boots. That was _it, _he never going to wear these damn sneakers again – he'd just give them to Sora.

"No. We didn't even have these stupid detention things either." He sighed. "I have a feeling I'm going to be here often," he muttered to himself.

"Because of staff shortages, some students can sign up to be S.A.'s and help out teachers in class, run errands, or… supervise a detention hall for a period." Just as Cloud was about to ask a question Leon seemed to already know the answer. "It's a senior only option of course."

"That's not what I was going to ask, but good to know." Cloud said with a roll of his blue eyes. Leon raised a brow at the blond when he didn't continue to ask what he was going to earlier.

There was a long empty silence that stretched for minutes. Finally Cloud gave in with an irritated growl. "Tell me where Honors Calc. class is."

oOo

"Why are you following me?" Roxas asked, finally losing his patience with the redhead. He found out that he was _exceedingly _lucky to share his second hour, A.P. Government and Politics, with Axel. It was another small class of about seven or eight, and another class that didn't believe he belonged there.

"Because, I asked you a question and you didn't answer me." Axel said with a mysterious grin as he backpedaled in front of Roxas.

"If I answer will you do me a favor?"

"Yeah sure,"

Roxas sighed. "Okay, what was the question?"

"I asked: Did you like A.?" Roxas cringed. He hated that little nickname that all the A.P. Government and Politics students came up with. It was just plain… retarded.

"Yeah. It was the most interesting lecture I ever sat through without killing myself. Now, go the fuck away."

Axel frowned and stopped in front of the staircase Roxas was about to descend, forcing the blond to stop as well. "Now what's got you all pissy?"

Roxas rubbed the bridge of his nose with his free hand. He was glad that there were seven minute passing periods here, or else he'd have been late two times over by now. When he noticed Axel wasn't moving he held up three fingers to the redhead. "Three things," he stated evenly, not a drop of emotion falling from his voice. "One, I'm under stress. This is understandable. Two, no one here seems to take me seriously. This is not understandable. Three, I'm being stalked by a fucking retard who can't quite tell when he's not wanted. Again, this is not understandable." Roxas dropped his hand back to its place by his side. "So, if you're able to solve the problems two and three, then maybe, _just maybe_, I'll find some miracle and lighten up. But until that time comes get the _fuck _out of my way so I can go to P. – fucking –E."

With the end to his speech, Roxas shoved the blinking Axel to the side and made for his P.E. class. Today _really _wasn't his day. First it had to start off with the whole mother leaving again thing, but he was used to it now, it didn't hurt as much as it did back then. Then, he had to deal with the whole adjusting to the new environment like some sort of test monkey. Is all he wanted right now was to be left alone so he could get down to his monkey adjusting and just be a good damned test subject.

Axel was just making everything difficult. He didn't have anything personal against the redhead. He just had his plate full right now. But there was no way he would regret what he said. What's done is done. Not like he could jump in a time machine and stop himself from spewing all that crap. Not that he'd want to stop himself…

"Roxas!" the blond was ripped from his – slightly – confusing musings by Sora running up to him and jumping onto his back. With a squawk Roxas lost his balance and fell backwards while Sora tried in vain to hold him up by the collar of his shirt, successfully choking his younger brother.

"Gah, S-Sora… let… let go!" Roxas choked out.

"Oh sorry!" Sora let go of Roxas' collar and bent in front of him with an apologetic smile, slight panic evident on his face. "Here, lemme help you up." He grabbed Roxas by the wrists and yanked him up with no warning.

Roxas came up from the ground too fast and collided heads with his twin. He could've sworn that there was a resounding echo in the brunet's head. "Geez Sora. You're such a klutz."

"Sorry about that," Sora said as they both rubbed their tender heads, he gave his twin a worried glance. "Forgive me?"

"Do you have to ask?" The twins gave each other a smile, Roxas' more conservative than Sora's, but a smile nonetheless.

"Come on Rox! Let's get to class. Riku said that we get some sort of gym uniform, a new rule that was made this year because of some kind of trouble the school was having with dress code for P.E. And he says that the teacher is really uhm, different, from the rest." Sora continued to chat away to Roxas as he took the other by the arm and forcefully drug him to their only shared class.

Sora threw open the gym doors with little regard to anything other than his own babbling to his twin. He headed straight for the front of the huge room, searching for someone that could pass as their teacher.

"Uh, Rox, I can't find a teacher anywhere." Sora whispered to his brother as they stood off to the side while the rest of the class began to warm up as they came out from the locker rooms. "I don't know what to do."

"Hey! New kids, get over here!" an angry feminine voice yelled at the twins. They both looked up to see a woman with shoulder length black hair, dressed in rather fitting sweats and a bright yellow necklace with a whistle on it around her neck. Her hands were on her hips and she was tapping her foot impatiently, one of the students tossed a red rubber ball to her and she caught it without tearing her glare from the two twins. "Hustle!"

Both Sora and Roxas bolted for the woman. Not really wanting to test her patience. They could see even from a distance that she didn't have very much of it. When they reached the woman she was smiling, resting the ball on one of her hips.

"You two the Strife brothers?" she asked, grabbing for a clipboard that was hanging from the wall behind her.

"Yup!" Sora replied with a grin. "I'm Sora and this is my twin Roxas." Roxas scowled slightly but nodded at the woman's questioning look.

"Alright then!" she said making a few marks on the clipboard and tossed it on the ground, creating a loud clattering sound. "Here are both of your locker numbers, your - err, uniforms, are inside them. If you have any questions wait 'till after class. You have five minutes to get dressed. Hustle!" she handed each of them a slip of paper and shooed them off impatiently.

Sora and Roxas sprinted off in the direction that the woman was pointing. "Oh and I'm Coach Tifa!" she called over their shoulders, just as they'd found the door to the boy's locker rooms.

"Rox, is it just me, or is everyone in this school crazy?" Sora asked as they frantically searched for their lockers.

Roxas nodded. "Glad you found a place to fit in?"

Sora pouted as he found his locker and put in the combination given to him. "You're so jealous."

Roxas just rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah you know it." He looked back down at his small paper and returned to looking for his locker. "How come I have to have locker 666?" he asked with a furrow of his brow. "Isn't that supposed to stand for something stupid? I don't remember." He located the locker and began to put in his given combination.

From behind him he could hear the rustle of clothes and a giggle. "Heh, Roxas got the devil locker." Sora giggled again as he finished dressing.

"That's stupid." Roxas scowled and quickly stripped, slipping on his red and black "uniform" shorts quickly. "Sora… These shorts are really…"

"Short?" Sora said with a knowing grin. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."

"Yeah," Roxas sighed and grabbed a pair of tennis shoes from his bag and tossed them at Sora's head. "I brought these because you can't run in those stupid things you call shoes."

"Hey, thanks!"

There was a loud pounding on the door as the two tied on their shoes, Roxas still shirtless. "Hey you two! It's Coach Tifa! I'm giving you three seconds to make yourselves decent before I come in!"

"One!"

Roxas stumbled, looking for his shirt.

"Twothree!" she rushed and seemingly kicked the door down.

"Fuck!" Roxas grabbed his shirt and tugged it over his head just as Coach Tifa was approaching. Immediately he bent back down to finish retying his shoes.

"Did you two find everything alright?" she asked and crossed her arms under her chest, forcing her breasts out more. It was at that moment Roxas realized exactly how large they were. Like freaking melons! He gave a soundless gulp and returned his eyes to her face.

"Yup!" Sora chirped as he tied the final knot on his borrowed shoe. "I can't wait to start."

Coach Tifa seemed to be pleased with his answer. "Good, good. Now follow me you two." Obediently the two followed their tempered teacher out of the locker room and into the gym. "Everyday you'll come straight to class, change into your uh… uniforms, and then warm up before we begin class."

She stopped over by the wall she was at earlier and picked up her clipboard, making a few marks on it with a pen. "Warm up each day consists of ten pushups, thirty crunches, ten more pushups and then laps until class starts. Got that?"

"Yes!" they both replied, Sora sounding too happy about the whole situation in Roxas' opinion.

"Okay! Run a couple laps and we'll get started."

Sora took off in the path that the other students were making, a long rectangle around the walls of the gym. Roxas followed sullenly after, but lost his twin in the crowd of the people.

"You one of those newbie kids?" someone asked him as he rounded his first corner. He'd never been more grateful in his life that he was an athletic person.

Roxas looked up to see a somewhat tall boy with strangely pink hair jogging next to him. "What do you think?" he grumbled back.

The taller glared down at Roxas. "Let me tell you a few things about how this place works," he said, almost in a protective way. This guy was pretty weird in his opinion.

"Like what?" Roxas asked; his curiosity was peaked.

"This place is nothing like Destiny. There's a pecking order that everyone has to abide by. And if you don't…" the boy trailed off, scowling.

"Whatever. It can't be that bad here."

The guy raised his brows then furrowed them in thought. "You know Riku don't you?"

Roxas snorted. "Know him? The guy practically lives at my house, can't get rid of him when Sora's around."

The pink haired boy thought again before nodding. "I'm Marluxia. Marly for short. And you're?"

"Roxas," he said. Wonderful. He'd just finished his first lap. He was bored. "I heard that Riku was popular here. Please tell me Naminé was just kidding or something."

Marly's brows rose again. "Actually she was telling the truth. Riku almost rules this school." He looked to the ground, a small scowl on his face. "I really hate him; I only tolerate him because he's good friends with Axel."

"Axel?" Roxas asked. "Man, that guy's a pain in the ass."

"You know Axel?" Marly asked, a small smirk appearing on his face.

"Wish I didn't," he responded sourly.

"He grows on you."

Suddenly a loud whistle echoed through the gym and each student stopped in their tracks. Roxas tripped, the sound surprising him.

"Alright class!" Coach Tifa yelled, although it wasn't really necessary, her voice was loud enough to fill the gym without hollering. "Today we're doing some basketball drills. Grab a partner and get started!" she blew her whistle again and returned to whatever she was doing earlier.

Roxas scanned the room for his twin, finding him coming towards him with a smile.

Marly grabbed him by the crook of his arm and declared, "Partner!" Roxas stared up at him confusedly and looked back to Sora, whose face fell almost instantly. Roxas shot his twin what he hoped was an apologetic look before looking back to Marly.

"Who says I want to be your partner?"

"Don't matter, I called you. I'm higher up on the scale than you. See how no one else will come near you? That's because no one else in this class is higher up than me."

"That's just a fucked up lie," Roxas said with a glare.

Marly smiled slightly. "If only it were." Before Roxas could reply, Marly dragged him off to get a basketball and they began to pass the ball back and forth.

At first they just passed the ball in silence until Marly tried to start a conversation and Roxas would throw the ball roughly at the pink haired boy until he would shut up.

"Okay! Overhead passing only!" Coach Tifa yelled randomly and Roxas changed his next pass from a bounce pass to overhead.

"So Roxas." Marly began as he caught the ball. "How do you know Axel?" he asked as he tossed the ball to the blond.

Roxas caught it with a sigh. He was so bored. He'd rather be somewhere else right now, taking notes or doing something less repetitive. "He's basically my stalker," he answered and tossed the ball back.

Marly smirked. "Really now? Has the world ended?"

"What?"

"CHEST PASSING!"

Roxas quickly changed his passing style again. "I don't get it."

"You're fresh meat, kid. Axel loves to fuck around with the new kids, eh, bully in some terms." Marly said with a shrug. "So this is just a surprising new twist to the day."

"Yeah? Well, whatever."

"You know, now that I think about it, you and Axel are pretty similar." Roxas raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. But he willed Marly to just shut up and for the clock to go faster. "You're both pretty much bastards, who don't give a shit about what other people think." The pink haired boy began, a smirk forming on his face. "But Axel's more of… a flamboyant bastard. In a way that says he knows he's a bastard and don't have to take shit from you. But you… you're different. More… emo th-" Marly was cut off by the basketball colliding hard with his face.

"Oops." Roxas said dully. "I wasn't watching where I was throwing the ball." Marly clutched his bleeding nose and glared up at Roxas. "You know…" he began as other students began to notice and Coach Tifa blew her whistle and made her way towards the two. "You talk too much for your own good."

"What happened here?" Coach Tifa asked as she reached the two boys. "Marly… Are you _bleeding_?"

Marly nodded. "It was an acc-"

"His face got in the way," Roxas said, cutting off whatever excuse Marly was about to spew. "I'll escort myself to the office. I know the way." Roxas could feel the entire class' eyes on him as he walked into the locker room to get changed. Of course he'd hit Marly on accident, but secretly he wished he'd broken the other's nose.

He _hated _being judged like that. It was unfair. With a scowl he made his way to the locker rooms, ignoring the stares from his peers, and mostly Sora's questioning gaze.

oOo

**And then they all died. The End.**

Kidding! Maybe… Ha. Either way, thanks for reading! All feedback is much appreciated. :)


	3. Chapter Tres

**A/N: **This fic here is mainly rated for **vulgarity**, sexual references, use of **drugs** and **alcohol**, notty words, reality, **sex**, partner switching, etc., etc., and the usual. XD Parings are Akuroku, Cleon, touches of Soku and Zemyx, and maybe some others in later chapters.

Nothing of real importance to touch up on… Just thanks for reading, and don't mind Demyx. :D

**Cry For Me, Laugh For Me**

_Chapter Three_

Roxas got dressed quickly, slung his bag over his back and used the other exit to the locker rooms that led to a nearby hall instead of the gym. He did exactly as he told Coach Tifa he'd do, but he didn't really know where the principle was, so he went to the admissions office.

The secretary from this morning looked up from her work at his entrance. "What now?" she asked very unprofessionally.

"Where's the principle at?" he asked just as rudely. _What a bitch._

She jabbed a long painted nail behind her. "Next door," she answered with a satisfied smirk. She must've thought he was in trouble. Maybe thought he'd get expelled. How he wished she was right. He hated this school.

Roxas nodded and left, going to the next door and letting himself in. The room was empty with the exception of a few chairs and an open door. He shrugged and took a seat in one of the uncomfortable purple chairs. This was a helluva lot better than P.E.

"Ahem." Roxas glanced up to see a tall man with silver-white hair and tan skin standing in the open doorway. He was wearing a black suit and didn't look all that happy to see Roxas at the moment. "Roxas Strife?" he asked, golden eyes pinning him down.

"Yes," Roxas said. He stood and tried his best to remain calm on the outside. The guy was rather intimidating. He followed the man into a small office. It was so impersonal that Roxas was a little concerned for the guy. He had to _work _here. As the man sat behind his desk Roxas quickly read the name holder on the front of the wooden furnishing.

_Principle Xemnas_

"Mr. Strife." Roxas flinched slightly at both the name used and the tone given to him by the man. "Today is your first day here at Oblivion High. Misses Lockheart had called me prior to your visit and I am quite disappointed and curious by your actions. You are one of the best students this school has ever seen, young man. Near perfect marks, honor roll, achievement academies, you've already been accepted into three prestigious universities, but you continue with such childish behavior – detentions, suspensions, community service sentences. What is wrong?"

Roxas blinked. How the _hell _did this guy know so much about him? "Uh…?"

"And no respect for your superiors!" the man sat up in his chair and leaned in closer to Roxas. "This is why your mother sent your family here: to teach you manners, and etiquette; to behave like a civilized human being."

Roxas scowled. "I _do _act civilized, _sir_. You don't see me walking around scratching my ass and eating with my toes. And of course I'm going to have childish behavior! I _am _a child! I only turn seventeen in four months!" he took an angry breath, he hated being riled up like this. "I don't know what you expect of me sir, but you won't get any more than what Destiny High got."

He set the man with an even gaze and was rewarded with one in return. Finally Principle Xemnas sighed. "Fine," he said and sat back. "I understand that what happened in your gym class was an accident, but I wish that there will be no repeats of such behavior. Now, I'd wish for you to focus on your studies. If you don't wish to participate in our Physical Education program you're welcome to my office at anytime to work on some more academic aspects of your education."

Roxas' jaw just about hit the ground. Was the principle giving him permission to skip P.E.? And get a grade for it? For a second he thought he'd died and woke up in heaven. "You're serious, sir?"

"Mr. Strife, one thing you'll definitely learn in this school is that I never joke nor jest nor jab. My offer will always stand for such a promising student such as yourself."

Roxas nodded. "Yes sir." He stood up and made his way to the door.

"Head to your fifth period, and take this with you." Principle Xemnas handed Roxas a pink slip of paper and pushed him back out into the hall. "They'll let you into class; you don't have to report to detention."

Roxas looked at the man in confusion. He hadn't heard any bells go off. "Thank you."

Xemnas smirked. "Learning already," he said and walked back into his office. Roxas scowled at the closed door before moving down the hall. He had a study period and from the looks of it class had started about five minutes ago. He stopped where he was and looked behind him at the front doors. He could leave right now. He did it all the time at Destiny too, so he wasn't nervous about it. And today had been such a horrible day so far, leaving really sounded like a good idea at the moment.

A door close by squeaked open slowly. Roxas frowned. Who else would be in the halls at this time? It wasn't exactly allowed here, and they did have hallway sweeps.

"Axel you didn't have to stay. Now you've missed class. You can't fail now, don't you want to graduate?" Roxas knew that voice. Wasn't it that Marluxia kid from P.E.? He looked up and saw the pink haired boy and Axel come out of another wooden door with a medical sign hanging from the front.

"Eh, one of my best friends gets pelted in the face with a ball and is bleeding everywhere, class really isn't all that important."

Marly sighed and shook his head slightly. A glimpse of golden caught his eye and he found Roxas standing down the hall a few feet away. A crooked smile formed on his face before he approached the boy. "Well, hello Roxas."

Roxas shrugged, trying not to wince at the ugly discoloration of the older boy's nose and the slight black color under his right eye. "Hey."

When Marly reached him, the taller boy reached out, Roxas did wince, preparing to be struck, but was confused when he was only pet on the head momentarily. "You've got a pretty strong toss. Have you ever considered joining the basketball team?"

"Uhh…"

"Woah, woah, woah, woah!! Woah!" Axel said suddenly, wrapping his arms around Marly's neck. "You mean _Roxas _did this to you?" he asked, poking the other's discolored nose, earning him a yelp in pain and a fist in the stomach.

"Don't touch my face, you idiot!" Marly hissed. "Get to detention. I have to go to class now." And without any further farewell, Marly marched down the hall in an angry fit.

Roxas watched Marly walk away before turning to Axel, who was still rubbing his now sore stomach. "Smooth," he said with a raised brow.

Axel nodded. "Yeah." Roxas rolled his eyes. It was time for him to blow this joint. It was getting too boring anyway. Just as he turned to head for the doors, his cell phone vibrated violently in his pocket. He pulled it out without checking to see if anyone saw and flipped it open. "Hey, those are against the rules."

Roxas rolled his eyes at the redhead and read his new message.

**Meet me by frnt drs aftr skool i got ur board.**

**-Hayner pwns all**

"Who was that?" Axel asked from behind Roxas. When had he gotten there? "Whoever it is has terrible spelling."

Roxas sighed. He simply text back 'k' before depositing the device back into his pocket. "It takes too long to type everything out on a cell." He took a quick look back at the doors, his last chance at freedom. He'd actually have to stay in school all day today. Bummer.

"So, where're you headed? I don't have anywhere important to be." Roxas shrugged and grabbed his schedule from his pocket. He unfolded it carefully before handing it to the redhead. Axel took the paper greedily and scanned the blond's schedule, secretly, or not so secretly, memorizing it. He had a feeling that Roxas knew he would.

"You lucky shit," he said at last. "You have Yuffie next. She's awesome."

"Hn." Was the shorters only response as he took his schedule back from Axel.

"Just follow me. I _know_ you're lost," Axel said with a smirk.

"Yeah, and that's not creepy," Roxas said with a raise of his brow, but followed the other teen anyway.

"Nope. Not at all."

The two walked down the hallways quietly. Roxas was unnerved at the sudden silence, but also at how Axel could just act as if nothing had happened earlier that morning. He knew if someone had told him off like that, they'd probably be on his hit list. Not that he had a hit list. Maybe he should make one? It might actually be fun… "Hey Axel," he said suddenly, trying to shake off his strange thought train. Axel gave a nod indicating that he was listening. "About earlier…"

Axel stopped walking and waved a casual hand in front of Roxas' face. The blond briefly considered biting the pale digits for invading his personal space. "Hey don't apologize or anything."

"I wasn't going to a—"

"I mean, I could tell that you were in a mood, so I figured you needed some 'Roxas time'."

"It's more like—"

"You know, I'm a pretty perceptive guy." Roxas was now sending the redhead mental death threats. Perceive that. "I can usually sense other people's moods and stuff. It can be real handy at times."

"Can you sense how much I want you to shut up right now?" Roxas shot out, rubbing his temples in slight frustration.

"Geez Rox, that's a little harsh," Axel moaned, placing his hand over his heart dramatically.

"Just let me speak. Okay?" Axel nodded. Roxas sighed and held up three fingers. "One, I wasn't going to apologize, at the time I really meant every word I said. Two, I didn't need 'Roxas time'. It was more like… 'Far away from Axel time'. And third, well, thanks for listening to me bitch all day." He dropped his hand just as his pocket began to vibrate, something he'd rather ignore and continue focusing on Axel. He sent the redhead a calculating look before fishing out his cell. Axel seemed a little shocked, but nodded his head in hopeful understanding. This reaction secretly pleased Roxas as he flipped open his cell with practiced ease and scanned over his new message.

**My place after school?**

**-Sweet Gurl Olette**

"Well, at least this one can spell." Axel said from behind once again. How did he keep doing that? And why did he keep snooping around in Roxas' stuff? Roxas shrugged it off as him being tired, he wasn't focused on what was going on around him.

"Yeah, well Olette's a grammar freak. She only spelt girl with a 'u' on her signature because Hayner got down on his knees and begged her," he said with a shrug as he typed back his typical reply.

**Ya sure… Hynr n Pnce 2?**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

"Weird…" Axel leaned back onto the wall as Roxas did the same to the opposite, he was waiting for a reply before heading off to class. "So why is your signature Closet Emo Rox?"

"Inside joke," Roxas said bluntly, basically slaughtering the conversation.

"Oh…" both teens found a sudden, extreme interest in the floor.

Roxas' gazed moved from the floor to the graffiti on his tennis shoes. On his left shoe it read 'Hayner's shoe' and his right read 'Pence's shoe'. He recalled the speech that Olette had given them about vandalism, and then how she'd written her new cell number on his hand not even five minutes later. Good times.

"So this Yuffie…" Roxas said slowly, trying to break some tension, "You said she was awesome?"

Axel smiled, it always seemed to reach his eyes, and hoisted himself off his side of the hall and moved to the wall next to Roxas. "Yeah, she's the creative writing teacher here. She does some other classes too, but it's not what she's known for."

"I see." Roxas' pocket vibrated once more and he quickly flipped it open.

**Yepp! C u there!**

**-Pence**

"Woah." Axel blinked a few times. "Why did that one answer for that sweet girl?"

"They have the same class right now," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh…"

"Okay, let's go, I have to get to class." Roxas began to walk down the hall without waiting to see if Axel was coming or not.

Axel sighed as he caught up with the blond. "And I just got you to start talking. What a shame."

"Whatever."

They continued to Roxas' study period in a comfortable silence. Or as comfortable as one could be around Axel, with his intimidating height and insanely colored hair, how could anyone in their right mind find themselves completely at ease around him during their first meeting with him.

Again Axel stopped by another large wooden door that looked to be identical to all other doors in the building. "Okay, here's your stop. See you in Spanish."

Before Roxas could digest what Axel had said, he was roughly shoved into the room and the door was closed in his face. He glared at the door before briefly wondering why it wasn't locked. Axel gave him thumbs up through the small rectangular window before leaving.

"Look," Roxas turned from glaring at the door to looking about the room. He was surprised to find Cloud at the front of the room talking with a woman who had short black hair that fell flat on her head. "I don't care if you never show your face in my class as long as you hand in all your prompts each week. Got it?"

The look on Cloud's face informed Roxas that he too had just died and went to heaven. "Really?"

"Yes really. I'm not just making it up, because that would be cruel, and as funny as cruelty is I'm not allowed to or I'll most likely be fired, a girls gotta eat. Now, the prompt for today is on the board. Chop, chop," the woman said in a partially bored and partially amused tone as she set her converse clad feet up on her desk. How she was able to do so Roxas wasn't sure. Roxas approached her just as Cloud returned to his seat. He noticed that the name tag on her desk had been whited out multiple times and **YUFFIE **had been written with a fat sharpie. "Can I help you kid?"

Roxas handed her his pink slip. She took it, glanced it over, then crumpled it up and tossed it on the floor. "Cool, you're late. Just write on that prompt there on the board and none of this ever happened." Roxas blinked several times trying to make sure that what she said was what he heard. When Yuffie made shooing motions with her hands he realized that yes, he had heard her correctly and turned around to find a seat.

"Rox sit here," Cloud said. The older blond tipped over the desk next to him to rid it of all the supplies that a girl, who had gotten up to sharpen her pencil, was using. The said girl saw this from her spot in the front of the room. She huffed quietly looking away from the two brothers, a blush of embarrassment and mortification rising to her cheeks.

Roxas, feeling slightly guilty for his brother's actions, picked up the books and supplies from the ground. He stacked them neatly on the empty desk behind him and moved the pink messenger bag back as well before taking a seat.

He took his bag off his back and threw it at Cloud. "Grab the black journal and two pens," he ordered. The girl whose stuff had been dumped carelessly returned to her new seat. Roxas noted that she seemed pretty interesting; with a frilly blue half skirt and a long braid at her nape that travelled down well past her waist.

"Here," Cloud said, basically throwing the requested items at Roxas along with his frayed old bag. Roxas tore out two pieces of paper from his journal and handed one to Cloud along with one of the pens.

Immediately the brothers set to work. Roxas looked up to the board. _What would you do for a Klondike Bar? _Well that prompt was pretty shitty.

"Four hundred word minimum, boys." Cloud groaned as Roxas merely shrugged. He'd seen worse. Roxas tapped his chin for a moment. Should he be serious, or not? The question itself didn't seem to be… or the teacher for that matter. Whatever. He didn't even _like_ Klondike Bars, so he began to write something that Sora had talking about earlier the other day.

_I would join a vampire cult and participate regularly in events…_

He stopped when he felt something brush his elbow. He lifted his arm to find a neatly folded piece of paper resting on the edge of his desk. Curious, he picked it up and unfolded it carefully. A small note was written in swirly handwriting.

_Thank you for picking up my stuff. I'm Yuna._

Oh. It was a gossip note from the chick behind him. Yay. Instead of tossing the note away like he usually would, he decided to at least humor the girl. He did steal her seat after all.

**Roxas.** He wrote back in his small blocky script. **No problem. Cloud's an ass.**

He stretched backwards, arms over his head and dropped the note back onto Yuna's desk. When Yuffie gave him a strange look, he turned the awkward position into a question by raising his hands.

"Yeah?" Yuffie said as she popped some gum into her mouth.

"When you said a four hundred word count, are you counting transition and junctions words, like, and, as, or…"

"Hey, I know what a junction word is. I _am _an English teacher. Sheesh. But yeah, they count. I don't like getting all technical. Too lazy." She gave a grin and a wink before refocusing her attention elsewhere.

"What was that?" Cloud hissed quietly, kicking the side of Roxas' desk, "I would've killed you if she said otherwise."

"I'd like to see you try," he whispered back. He was surprised that Cloud had spoken to him so much in the span of an hour. Usually Roxas was the last pick when it came to conversations, especially when you always seemed to have the talkative Sora and Zack around all the time. It never made sense to try and chat up the moody smart kid now did it? But he really did like bantering every once and awhile, the pointlessness was always refreshing.

"I would," Cloud said and leaned back into his chair, a tiny smirk playing on his lips.

"Yeah," Roxas agreed monotonously, "one less mouth to feed."

Roxas mentally slapped himself as Cloud's mood went from slightly playful to dark and thoughtful at the drop of a hat. Yuna passed the note back up to him just as his cell vibrated. He had to force himself not to roll his eyes at the horrible timing of everything.

First, he unfolded Yuna's note. _Do you know him? _Duh, Cloud was his brother. _Lets exchange numbers sometime and hang out!_

**Sure. **He wrote back without really thinking, mind already focused on what he was supposed to do next; although he was slightly caught off guard that she would be so open to him so soon. She must be a generally nice person.

Next, he pulled out his cell, using the guy in front of him as cover, he read over his message quickly.

**Omg Rox! We miss u here!**

**-Pence**

**Ya me 2**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

He typed back. There was only ten minutes of class left and he had only about one hundred words done so far. Quickly he began to make shit up about Vampric mentality and blood thirst. It was stupid, but it got the job done. And was all he really cared about at this point.

When his pocket vibrated again he vowed to put the damn thing on silent.

**You miss yourself?**

**-Sweet Gurl Olette**

Ha ha very funny Olette. He thought bitterly and snapped his phone shut. That didn't even dignify a reply.

The bell rang suddenly, causing Roxas to jump. He grabbed his bag and slapped his paper down on Yuffie's desk. She picked it up slowly, one corner at a time, a grin stretching slowly across her face. "Now this should be interesting," she practically purred.

Roxas, a little more than slightly freaked out, nodded and left. He wasn't surprised to find Cloud waiting for him outside the doors.

"Did you really mean that?" was the first thing out of the taller blond's mouth when Roxas approached.

"Of course not," Roxas scoffed. Okay, maybe in a sense he did, but he didn't want to offend or upset Cloud any further. He was scary enough as it was.

"Alright." The older seemed much more relaxed at the information. Just as Cloud opened his mouth to bid farewell a loud wail of 'Roxie!' rang down the hall. Both brothers flinched at the name.

Axel came barreling down the hall, panting slightly as he reached the brothers. "Rox… Roxas, whew, I thought I'd missed you."

"Uh…" was all Roxas was able to say. Axel just grinned and moved to put an arm around Roxas' shoulders, but before he could, Cloud grabbed him by the wrist and jerked the redhead away from his youngest brother.

"Who the fuck're you?" Axel spat, immediately trying to wrench himself from Clouds' vice grip, to no avail.

"Don't. Touch. Him," Cloud said deeply, his face a mask of worry and anger.

Axel just blinked, a small scowl of his own beginning to form. "Who gave you the right –"

"Hey , hey, hey!" Roxas looked from his brother and the redhead to find Sora running down the hall towards them. He wasn't sure if he should be relieved or not. "Cloud let 'im go!" Sora whined as he ran up to Cloud and began to poke him in the stomach. "Over-protective brother mode off!"

Roxas tried to rub away the headache that this impromptu family reunion in the middle of the hall was bringing on. After Cloud had released Axel and devoted his attention to Sora, Roxas grabbed Axel by the arm and drug him away from the scene and into the gathering crowd.

"Just take me to lunch," he nearly pleaded with the redhead before he could say anything else.

"Okay… but that guy…"

"Cloud."

"He's your brother?" Roxas nodded. "Dude, he's effing creepy!" Axel announced loudly, his tone bright and cheery.

"No," Roxas said, cheering up slightly, "He's just quiet, dark, and protective. I'm still looking for his poetry book and myspace blog."

Axel blinked down at him for a few short seconds before bursting into uncontrolled laughter. By the way the people in the hall ignored the redhead Roxas assumed this kind of outburst was in the norm.

They continued down the hall at a snail's pace, Axel rotating between deep breaths and hearty chuckles. Finally the tall teen sucked in a large breath, holding it in for a few brief moments. "Hehe, Roxas made a funny."

_Well, _that_ was mature_. Roxas thought with a cringe. After descending two flights of stairs the duo reached the ground level and headed for the cafeteria.

"You can sit with me Rox." Inwardly Roxas cursed his horrible luck. Why did he have so many classes with this guy?

"Oh _goodie_."

Axel frowned. "Don't sound so excited. Who else're you going to sit with?" Roxas just grunted. "I'm glad you see things my way then."

Roxas followed Axel into the growing lunch line slowly. What Marly had told him earlier about the schools pecking order… Was he being subjected to it right now?

He pulled on the neck of Axel's shirt to get the tallers attention. "I don't have a choice, do I?"

The redhead stopped briefly before grinning. "No, not really."

He figured. Angrily the blond grabbed a tray and violently threw a sandwich and a milk carton on it. He waited awkwardly in the middle of the line for Axel to stop overfilling his tray, but he gave up after the third person attempted to push the blond out of their way and paid the lunch lady his dollar seventy five.

He scanned the lunchroom, hoping to find someone, _anyone_, he knew so he could escape the red haired nightmare.

"Hey! Axel's new friend! Over here!" Roxas cringed at the singsong voice that reminded him so much of Sora in the morning and tried to ignore the call altogether. He was _not _Axel's new friend. "Helllloooooo? Can you hear meeeee?" Roxas closed his eyes. He refused to look and give any indication that he could, in fact, hear the other quite clearly. "Oh no! Zexy I think he's deaf!"

Roxas opened his eyes to scan the room for whoever it was and prove to that he was not deaf; with his fists. He just wasn't in the mood for stupid shit today.

He dropped his tray in shock when he found someone with purplish hair standing in front of him, rather closely. The guy's hair curtained over one of his eyes, completely shielding it from view. Now he knew the answer to Hayner's question of 'What is it like to have a staring contest with a Cyclops?'

It's hard. Roxas wasn't sure if he should focus on the one visible eye or try and focus on where both eyes should be.

"Demyx is talking to you," he said; his voice was quiet and monotone. It was actually kinda creepy.

"Cool," Roxas said with a shrug. He bent down to try and grab his dropped tray from the ground, but his arm was yanked forcefully, all he managed to salvage was his sandwich before he was pulled to a table by the emo freak.

Roxas glared at all three occupants at the table: the emo, a blond with a strange fohawk/mullet combination and a blonde girl with her hair slicked back except for two protruding locks, almost giving off the look of antenna.

He took a seat next to the blonde, ignoring the look the two males exchanged, before setting his sandwich down in front of him and glaring at it for no particular reason.

After a few long seconds of awkward silence, the blond seated ahead of Roxas spoke up. "Hi! I'm Demyx!" he said with, what Roxas considered to be, unhealthy amounts of enthusiasm. "What's your name?"

"Roxas," he said in a bored fashion. Might as well entertain the kid before he decided to go home and hang himself in his closet.

"Roxas, hm?" the blonde next to him said. She leaned towards him, a lecherous smile stretching across her lipstick covered lips. "You're supposed to be that prodigy, Sora's twin."

Roxas turned to glare into her fierce blue eyes, an unknown, yet very familiar, anger rising from his stomach. "You know what?" he hissed, fists clenching and unclenching under the table. "Why don't you stick your nose where it fucking belongs? Such as in your girlfriends crotch."

Just as he finished, Axel chose to take a seat next to him. Ignoring all the shocked stares he grabbed his sandwich and threw it at Axel's head, instead of the girl's face, like he had wanted to. The redhead had no idea what happened as the blond stood and stormed off.

God fucking dammit! He hated this place and everyone in it!

oOo

**Roar. I kinda like pissy Roxas. :)**

So yeah. Thanks for reading/reviewing/alerting. Although I really like to know what everyone's thinking… It's just what I get for not being a mind-reader. :(


	4. Chapter Vuin

**A/N: **This fic here is mainly rated for **vulgarity**, sexual references, use of **drugs** and **alcohol**, notty words, reality, **sex**, partner switching, my retardation, confusion, **lengthiness**, etc., etc., and the usual. XD Parings are Akuroku, Cleon, touches of Soriku and Zemyx, and maybe some others in later chapters. A lot of one sided teenage crushes.

I wanna give thanks to **Sad0-masochisticPyro**, **blood as soft as silk**, and **reddoggie**. You guys are a wonderful and supportive bunch. Thank you so much for all of your input and opinions. :D

**Cry For Me, Laugh For Me**

_Chapter Four_

Roxas stood quickly and marched away before anyone could say anything. He was going to go to the office and hang there until his class started, but a quick flash of frilly blue and red leather ties in a train of long hair caught his eye and had his mind changed just as fast. He approached Yuna's table slowly, waving a little as she looked up to see who it was.

"Roxas!" she said with a sweet smile. "Sit with us?" 'Us' being Yuna, a bouncy girl with wild braided and beaded hair, along with a silent girl with black hair so light it appeared to be gray.

"Sure." He took the offered seat next to Yuna. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, he glanced up only to find Axel staring at him from three tables down. Quickly he averted his gaze guiltily to the table before looking back to the girls' whose company he was now in.

"So, you're one of those new kids?" the bouncy blonde asked him from her spot across the table. She stretched across the tabletop and sighed in contentment. "I wish I was a new kid."

"So you can get rejected by everyone?" the gray haired girl asked sarcastically.

"Maayyyyybe. But then you and Yunie can come and pick me up off the street and we can all have a wild _byndo_!" At this point she was sitting back up in her seat dancing to a song that only she could hear.

Yuna giggled. "That's Rikku." She pointed to the dancing blonde, "And that's Paine." Next she pointed to the quiet girl. "We've been friends since middle school, so we're quite close." She pulled her bag out from under the table and grabbed her cell. It was light blue in color and had lacy designs traveling down the sides. "So how is your first day so far?" she asked as Roxas took her phone and handed her his own in return.

"Stressful," he replied with a sigh.

"Bummer," Rikku said and moved down a seat so she was directly in front of Roxas, blocking Axel's intense gaze. "Here," She leaned forward, her orange bra showing through her cotton white tee, and placed her hands on his shoulders, kneading her fingers gently into tense muscles. And surprisingly he allowed her to. She was rather good at it.

"What class do you have next? Maybe we can help you?" Yuna said hopefully as she handed back Roxas' cell, only to have it snatched up by Rikku's magic fingers.

"Me too, Roxie!" Roxas shrugged and took Rikku's orange cell with multicolored jeweled stickers placed sporadically on the front. He was surprised that when she had called him Roxie that he hadn't flinched, or gagged, or… anything. Maybe it was because she was… well a girl. He shrugged the notion off. It wasn't anything important to think about at the moment.

As he entered his number in Rikku's cell, he pulled his schedule from his pocket and handed it to Yuna.

"Yo Roxie, you have Riku's number in here?" Rikku said with a raised brow. "Can I steal it? I mean, do you even _know_ how badass it'll be to prank call that guy?"

Roxas felt a small smile play on his lips. She reminded him of Sora in the cheerfulness department, but, where Sora was childish and innocent; Rikku seemed to be mischievous and silly.

"Feel free; just make sure to call him from payphones, so he can't block your number."

Rikku paused, looking up from the two phones in front of her as she copied Riku's number to her cell. "Wow, Roxie! You're a _genius_!"

"Or so I've been told," he muttered to himself.

"Roxas, you're a sophomore?" Yuna asked him suddenly. "But you're taking almost all junior level classes?"

Roxas shrugged. "I guess… Well I've always been a little ahead of my class."

Rikku shook her mane of braids and beads. "Yunie and me, we're juniors this year. Paine's a senior because she skipped ahead a grade when we were ten, but people think that she's a junior. So, when she's gone next year," she paused momentarily to make a dramatic sniffing sound, "we're going to tell people that she dropped out to chase her dream of being a hooker." She sighed dramatically, ruining it with a small giggle. "No one in this school really pays attention to the fine details."

Paine reached over and took Roxas' schedule from Yuna to look it over herself, as if she didn't believe what Yuna had said about his classes. "Rikku," The blonde stopped bouncing momentarily to give her attention to Paine, "he has M.A. with you next hour."

The bubbly blonde blinked a few times. "Really?"

"Yes, really."

"_Hayd_! Roxie and Rikku bonding time!" she said with a grin. Roxas was just glad that there was a table separating the two of them, else he would've been smothered by the hyper active girl.

Finally, his day was starting to look up.

oOo

Axel watched Roxas storm away in a huff, confusedly rubbing his head where Roxas had hit him with the sandwich.

"Okay, who said what?" he asked, giving a measuring glare to each member at the table.

"I didn't even say three words to the kid!" the blond paused for a second then gasped. "Oh my god, I think I said _five_!" Axel rolled his eyes. Five words from Dem were enough to drive anyone nuts. "Zexy didn't say anything though."

Axel turned to Larxene, who was currently shredding her napkin and muttering angrily to herself. "So, what happened, exactly, and why did he throw a sandwich at me?"

"Uhm," Demyx scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I said, Hi! I'm Demyx! What's yours? Then like, he just said Roxas and I kinda figured that he was like, Zexy… You know," he lowered his voice, "_anti-social_."

"Demyx… I can still hear you. I happen to be right next to you." Zexion said in a bored tone.

Demyx jumped and laughed uneasily. "Oh! Uhm, dude! When did you get there?" he gave another chuckle and turned back to Axel, completely missing Zexion's eye roll. "Anyway…"

Axel tuned Demyx out and he watched Roxas take a seat with Yuna and her friends. When did Roxas befriend _them_? He nibbled on the inside of his cheek. When Roxas looked up from his seat and caught his stare, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel. Anger? Jealousy? But when Roxas looked away in what really seemed to be guilt, he tried to settle on understanding.

"And when Larx was all up close, like, she said that he was some kind of… uhm, prom-a-gee…?"

He looked to Zexion for help. Zexion merely sighed. "Prodigy."

"Yeah one of them, and that he was uhm, Sora's twin or something." Demyx shrugged, taking a deep breath, "then he just told Larx to shove her nose in her girlfriend's crotch. I was like _woah! _He totally said that! Oh, and then he threw his sandwich."

"He called me a _lesbian_," Larxene seethed, and dug one of her long nails into the pile of shredded tissue. "That fucking brat!" she snarled before moving on to tear up her food. "He thinks he can get away with this… Think fucking again." She stopped suddenly as a grin spread across her face. "This is not over."

"No. No it's not," Axel said as he went back to staring at Roxas. He would figure the blond out someday. He found Roxas to be like an intriguing puzzle that only contained odd pieces that wouldn't seem to fit together unless you looked at it from many different angles. It was both refreshing, yet, extremely irritating to the redhead. "Dem, you have M.A. with him next hour."

oOo

"Yep! Here it is!" Rikku said, throwing open the doors to Music Appreciation. "This class is up on the charts with creative writing. And Professor Melody is awesome! She's up there on the _other _charts with Yuffie."

"Uh, okay?" Roxas gave Rikku a strange look, even though she wasn't looking. What the hell was she talking about? And what kind of charts was she referring to? Then again, he really didn't want to know.

"Oo, oo, sit here!" Rikku said, motioning to a seat between herself and Demyx. Roxas shrugged and did as he was told; doing his best to ignore the curious looks Demyx would send him.

"Good afternoon class!" A cheery woman at the front of the room greeted. She had reddish hair that was clipped to the back of her head so it spilt over the top of her head, accompanied with big gray eyes covered by a pair of non-rimmed glasses. "Did everyone remember their iPods?"

Roxas blinked. He didn't have an iPod. He did have music storage on his phone. He leaned over to Demyx, because Rikku seemed too busy digging through her bag, and whispered, "Can you use a phone?"

Demyx smiled. "Yeah dude! As long as it can download music files for class."

"_Kud ed_!" Rikku yelled waving around her orange colored iPod, decorated in the same fashion as her phone. She continued to wave it around until the earplugs smacked Roxas in the side of the head. "Oops, sorry Roxie." She set the device in her lap. "Yo, Melody! You said that today we get to start on modern music! I say we start with some dance music!"

Professor Melody smiled, opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by a whining Demyx. "Nooo! We should totally do some rock! Or pop! Something with nice guitar riffs; that attack!"

There was a small roar around the room as students both agreed and disagreed. Roxas on the other hand, had no idea what an attacking guitar riff was, nor what music was strictly classified as dance. "I don't know about you guys," a guy in the back said over the crowd, "But, elevator music seriously trips my trigger, let's do that!"

Rikku sighed and rolled her head back on her chair. "Shut up tat face, no one cares about your overwhelmingly stupid opinion."

"Yeah well—"

"Zell, Rikku, enough!" Professor Melody said in a stern voice, earning the attention of the entire class. "Today we have a new student, we'll let him decide."

Roxas blinked a few times as Professor Melody gave him a pointed look. "Well… Uhm…" He drew a blank. He wasn't exactly big on a certain type of music. Whatever sounded good at the time would be what he listened to. His tastes were all over the place.

"Do you have, perhaps a particular band in mind?"

Roxas swallowed. If he said something he swore half the class would worship him and the other would murder him violently in his sleep. He just closed his eyes and thought back to the last song he and his friends had listened to together. He wasn't sure of the artists, but the title was something along the lines of 'That old time rock and roll'.

"Uhm, rock?" he squeaked out.

Professor Melody nodded, "Modern rock it is then," she said with a satisfied smile.

Rikku sighed from his right. "Well, I guess that's better than elevator music…" she mumbled. Demyx, on the other hand, looked so excited that Roxas could of sworn that he'd wet his pants at any given moment.

"Alright, class today we'll…" Roxas pretty much zoned out the rest of the class. Turned out all he had to do was listen to some songs each week and then form an opinion about it. And that's all they ever did in that class. Ever. Not that he minded, he just wondered how, exactly, they were graded.

After class Roxas decided to ask Demyx to show him to his English class since Rikku just up and left, most likely forgetting that he was there. Which really didn't surprise Roxas, Rikku seemed to be the type of person that could be quite airheaded at times. Roxas figured that Demyx was a really good guy, just… stupid. Demyx agreed to show him around and didn't mention one word about lunch or Axel. Actually the whole time Demyx was gabbing about all his favorite guitarists from some more modern rock bands and a few of the older ones. But with the speed that Demyx talked and Roxas' incapability to keep up with him had his head spinning by the time he made it to class.

"Okay, now you have fun little dude!" was the last thing Demyx said before he was pushed bodily into his next class. Yeah, complete idiot. He looked around the room that he had been shoved into, only to find that it was nearly empty due to the fact that he had arrived somewhat early. M.A. wasn't too far away.

"Ahem. Roxas." Roxas blinked. Had he spaced out? Naminé was sitting across the room, a hand on the desk next to her. "You can sit here if you'd like, no one sits here."

"Okay." Roxas sat down and rested his head on the cool surface of the desktop. The day was almost over. So close to being over; so very close. And yet, not close enough.

"How has your day been?" the pale blonde asked him after a long moments silence.

"Stressful," he replied.

Naminé nodded. "Same as Sora," she said quietly, "he just won't admit to it."

Roxas snorted. "Of course he wouldn't…" he looked to the ground. He wasn't used to being away from Sora for this long. It was probably one of the many reasons he was so edgy today. "You've seen him recently?"

Again the blonde nodded. "We just had math together. He asked the same about you, you know?"

Roxas attempted a small smile, but failed miserably. Great, now he was suffering from separation anxiety. He tallied that onto his growing list of problems. At least Sora was feeling the same.

Not a single word was said between the two for the rest of the hour. It was just a repeat of chemistry class, but this time, the teacher actually gave him a book.

oOo

"Thanks again Naminé," Roxas said as they reached his seventh hour Honors Algebra class.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'll see you later Roxas."

With a small parting wave, Roxas walked into his seventh hour. The desks were all sectioned off into groups of two and the occasional three. The teacher, a bald man with a large scowl, pointed to a desk near the center of the room, the one in front of it empty as well.

"Good to know some brats still come to class on time." Roxas looked around the room confusedly. He was the only one present. Oh. "Here's a text, calculators are over there, steal one and you'll have a swift death."

"Yes sir." This guy freaked Roxas out; threatening his students with death on their first day. Momentarily he wondered if the guy ever smoked or drank during class too. Shrugging the notion off, he went and grabbed the aforementioned calculator and sat back in his seat.

Two or three minutes passed by and the only other person to show up was that Selphie girl from his first hour. When she saw him, she looked positively murderous. He pointedly ignored her.

Three minutes until the final bell was to ring, Roxas thought that it was just going to be Selphie and himself. That was until the door was nearly ripped off its hinges and Riku came tumbling in, muttering how he was still on time.

The silver haired teen sat down in front of Roxas after fetching his own calculator. Riku shuffled some papers around on his desk before looking up and noticing Roxas for the first time.

"Roxas?"

Roxas forced back a smirk, instead settling for an apathetic stare. "Someone's pretty observant."

Riku scowled. "I can't believe you're in this class." He sighed, twirling his pencil absently on his desk. "So Sora wasn't kidding earlier."

Roxas quirked a brow, but didn't say anything on the matter. To be honest, he didn't care, nor was he going to waste the effort of trying to.

Finally after what seemed to be an eternity, the teacher started the lesson and Roxas still had the faintest idea as to what his name was.

The class went well for Roxas, the subject matter was something he had already gone over at Destiny, and so he pretty much had everything in the bag. And to top it off, Riku hadn't said a word more to him, and for that he was beyond grateful. Riku annoyed the hell out of him.

Just one more class and he was home free.

oOo

Cloud sighed in irritation at his machine shop partner, Reno. Honestly, this guy didn't know the difference between a bolt and a screw.

"No, put that _there _and this _here_ or else the—don't turn it on!"

Cloud grabbed the long tail of red hair just as Reno flipped the switch to the 'on' position and pulled the other away from the small device as it all but exploded.

"Cooooool!" Reno exclaimed as it stopped sparking and went to poke at the mess with a pen. "What, exactly, happened to it?"

The blond sighed and adjusted his goggles so they hung around his neck. He picked up the partially melted clump of metal and wire. "It short circuited. Bad."

"Huh, now that definitely wasn't supposed to happen," the redhead said, pulling up his own goggles to rest atop his head.

"No shit."

"Hey, don't get mad at me! It was a total accident."

Cloud gave Reno a side glance. "Yeah. Right. Accident."

Reno looked closer at the blackened lump. "So uh, I guess we start over?" he said, poking at it once again.

Cloud couldn't wait to go to work.

oOo

Roxas sighed as he found his Spanish class. Cloud had already left school to go to work and Roxas wasn't jealous in the least.

He took a seat between a couple of people he'd never seen before, and just put his head down. He felt so tired, just from the complete _boredom _that he'd been suffering throughout most of the day. There was a few shifting and scuffling sounds from the seat next to him, but he didn't give it much concern, he just found it to be a little too loud. Spanish was probably his worst class ever, but both he and Sora promised their mother that they'd take foreign language classes to get into better colleges.

Class began shortly after, but Roxas didn't feel all too inclined to raise his head and listen.

There was a loud rapping sound right next to head, that startled him enough to get him to look up. There was a tall woman with blonde hair drawn up into a tight bun; she had on a pink outfit that seemed a little too tight. "Head up, hun," she said with a smile, stretching her red lipstick.

"Yes ma'am," he replied blearily. He blinked a few times and yawned. Damn he was so bored. Looking around the room, he noticed that ten minutes of class had already gone by. He panicked slightly. What were they doing? What had they gone over? Whose notes could he use?

He looked to one of the guys he had sat next to. The guy had spiky black hair and was pretty much twenty times his size and could very well squish him under his boot, so with a shake of his head he turned to the other side and suppressed the urge to groan, although he couldn't quite stop the eye roll. Sitting right next to him was the redheaded nuisance, Axel, when he was more than positive he had sat between a couple of people he hadn't met before.

_See you in Spanish._

Oh. Now it made sense. Stalker.

"Okay class, now pick a partner and do the exercise. That's all for today."

Again Roxas felt the panic rise up inside him. He didn't know anybody but Axel in this class, and Axel was most likely mad at him. He needed to explain himself, sorta, and get the notes.

When Axel made to move from his desk he did the only thing he could think of. What Marly had done to him during P.E. He grabbed Axel by the wrist and yanked to get his attention. He needed to be confident, like Marly was with him.

"Uhm… Partner?" he asked when Axel looked down at him. Damn Axel for being so fucking tall, he didn't really like being towered over like this. And, damn him for being so fucking awkward.

Instead of leaving in a huff, as Roxas had figured the taller would do, Axel smiled and moved fully back into his desk. "I thought you were mad at me," he said as he turned his desk sideways, motioning for Roxas to do the same.

"No. I'm not." Roxas sighed. "And I didn't, exactly, mean… to throw my sandwich at your head. It just happened, and I'm still hungry because of it."

Axel chuckled. "Okay, fine," he said with a smirk, "I accept your apology."

"I wasn't –"

"Okay, now is all we have to do is…"

Class went by pretty fast for Roxas. It turned out that Axel was pretty good at deciphering the gibberish that filled the pages of the text book.

When they finished the assigned exercise, Roxas sighed and put his head on his desk, before propping it up on his chin. "I hate this class," he mumbled, followed by a small yawn.

"Why?" Axel asked his own head propped up on a hand. "It's good to know."

"Maybe." He sat up and glanced at the clock wearily. Five minutes left. "But I don't plan on border jumping anytime soon."

Axel snorted. "Doesn't mean that _they _don't."

"Yeah, well then they should learn English so that way my GPA can stop being put into jeopardy."

"Your GPA?" Axel stretched across his desk, green eyes flickering in curiosity. "What's it at right now?"

"Four point O," Roxas said with a shrug. "And I'd like to keep it that way."

"Wow, if you want— " The final bell rang, causing some students to jump at the shrill sound. Roxas sat further into his desk, he felt too lazy to get up. "If you want," Axel repeated, talking over the sudden rush of people, "I can help you out in this class."

Roxas blinked. The offer sounded too good to be true. Most people were too jealous to give him the time of day. Not that he really cared, they were all stupid anyway. "Really?"

"Yeah really."

Roxas stood slowly and slung his bag over his back as Axel did the same. The offer seemed genuine to Roxas, but it was still too good, Axel was, as much as he hated to say it, even if it _was_ just in his mind, much better than him at the material. "There's a catch, isn't there?"

Axel's grin seemed to turn sharper as they walked down the hall together. "You'll have to come to my house to get help; I don't have any free time at school."

When what Axel said actually registered in Roxas' tired brain, he nearly tripped in his surprise. "Wha—your house?"

"Why not? It's not too far, and Reno can give you a ride after school, so we don't have to walk."

"Reno?" Roxas asked. What exactly just happened?

"He's my older brother." Axel pushed open the black metal doors leading outside. "So you'll be at my house tomorrow right?"

"Uh?" Axel was so confusing at the moment. He was talking way too fast and distracting Roxas with quirky hand gestures that the blond was positive he was doing on purpose. He just couldn't keep up.

A horn sounded and a sleek black convertible drove up in front of the duo. Roxas wasn't really into cars, but this one was rather shiny, bordering on that it's too shiny to look at and the owner has nothing better to do with their lives than polish their car over and over. But what did he know; cars were more Cloud's thing.

"That's my ride," Axel said as he walked up to the car and opened the passenger door, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Roxas stared straight ahead as Axel's car drove out of view. He was too out of it to care all that much.

"Yo Rox." Something hard was placed on his shoulder, snapping him out of his daze. He recognized the weight immediately as his skateboard. He grabbed it and put it on the ground before facing his friend.

"Hey Hayner," he said, a small smile beginning to form. When was the last time he'd ever just grinned? He couldn't remember. "Have fun getting here?"

Hayner snorted. "No. It's at least fifteen minutes away on wheels. I think I'd kill myself before I walked." He motioned to his rollerblades. "Got new ones," he said with a smirk, "And, you're just jealous that we get out before you."

"Nice. But, you're jealous that we get in after you," Roxas countered as he climbed atop of his board.

"Whatever." Hayner grunted and they both took off, weaving their way through the crowd of students.

When his cell began to vibrate, Roxas pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open, still managing to wind his way easily through the thinning crowd.

**Where R U?**

**-S-O-R-A**

**Goin 2 Olettes**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

"Sora?" Hayner asked as Roxas put his phone back in his pocket.

"Yeah." When they made it out of the mess of people, the two friends sped up their pace and would occasionally pull a trick or two.

"You like it there?" Hayner asked after Roxas tried to ollie over a stray cat. It ran away before he could land the trick. He gave a curse.

"Too big," he said as he threw a pebble at the cat, "You can't find anything there."

"Sounds like it blows."

"It does. I hate how you can't be late to a class or you get locked out and sent to detention."

Hayner sighed and turned around to skate backwards. "Bigger schools always have crazy stupid rules like that." He gave Roxas a strange look. "Destiny's not the same without you, yanno."

"It's not like I can go back," Roxas said, knowingly shooting down any ideas Hayner was trying to form. "Besides, it's not like you guys really missed me that much anyway."

At this, Hayner growled and pushed Roxas off his board, causing the shorter blond to stumble a few steps backwards as his board continued down the sidewalk without him. "What the fuck, Hayner?" Roxas spat out.

"Don't 'what the fuck' me, Roxas! 'It's not like you guys missed me anyway', my ass!" Hayner threw his hands up. "Dammit Roxas, we're your _friends_, we fucking missed you. But _I_ certainly didn't miss your pathetic 'nobody loves me' attitude!"

Roxas' fists clenched at his sides. "Take that back, Hayner," he ground out angrily.

The sandy blond snuffed his nose stubbornly. "No. Way."

For the second time that day, Roxas let his anger get the best of him. He tackled his longtime friend onto the grass. They both began to wrestle, pulling hair and clothes, kicking each other and trying to smash each other's faces into the dirt. Roxas wasn't sure how long they were going at it, but soon enough both of them began panting heavily and they slowly stopped and lied down next to each other on the grass to regain their breaths.

Roxas punched Hayner in the shoulder lightly. "I hate you sometimes."

Hayner chuckled airily. "Yeah, well, I hate you too." He kicked Roxas' shin with the front wheel on his rollerblade. Roxas hissed in a pained breath, he could feel a bruise forming on the spot already. Again Hayner chuckled. "Serves you right." He rubbed his face and gave his own groan of pain; he took his hand off his face and looked at it closely. "Fuck, Roxas. You need to cut your nails."

Roxas looked over at Hayner to see a long scratch mark traveling under Hayner's eye. "Serves you right," he repeated.

"Uhm… Roxas?" both Roxas and Hayner looked up to see another blond standing over them with a curious look on his face. He was holding Roxas' board in one hand and the other was hanging onto a leash.

"Demyx?" Roxas said, sitting up and trying to smooth his hair down.

"This yours little dude?" Demyx asked, holding out the checkered patterned skateboard.

"Oh… Yeah. Thanks." Roxas took his board back and stood up, brushing the grass off his butt. "What're you doing here?"

Demyx grinned. "Today's is Demy's day off!" he declared proudly. "But, I was walking Pluto and I saw you two just laying there." He gave a shrug and a tug on the leash he was holding. "Did you two crash or something? Like, major wipe out on the sidewalk?"

"Yeah…" he thought quickly for some kind of change in subject. "Pluto?"

"He's my—"

"Gah! Get this thing off me!" Hayner shrieked suddenly. The two conversing blonds looked down at him. A large tan colored animal was crawling atop of Hayner, giving the appearance that it was trying to eat Hayner's face off.

Roxas pulled the thing of Hayner by its collar, while Demyx sat back and laughed until it looked as if he were going to fall over.

Hayner gasped and stood quickly, wiping his face off much harder than necessary. "What _is _that gross thing?" he demanded before spitting several times into the grass.

"T-that's… hehe, Pluto. My d-dog." Demyx managed to say through his giggle fit.

Roxas looked down at the panting 'dog'. It didn't really look much like a dog. Its feet were too big for its body, its tail and ears too thin, and its nose looked like some kind of defect. Pluto just looked up at Roxas, a long tongue lolling out if its mouth.

"It's ugly," he said bluntly.

Hayner nodded. "Yeah, looks part dog, part rat and part… sasquatch."

Demyx sighed. He bent down and mashed Pluto's face against his. "But that's what makes him so adorable! Yesh you are! Yesh you are!"

Roxas pulled out his phone and pretended to be interested in the time it displayed. "Oh, hey, Demyx. We need to go, or we'll be late."

"Okay," Demyx said with a sigh. He began to scratch Pluto behind the ears. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, little dude. Bye to you and… uh…" he trailed off and looked at Hayner expectantly.

"Oh." Hayner said after a short awkward silence. "Hayner. That's my name… yeah."

Roxas nudged his friend as they started down the sidewalk again. "Smooth."

"Yeah, well, look who's talking, Mr. Anti-Social-might-as-well-be-bipolar!"

"At least I can introduce myself properly."

Demyx watched the two skate away. They seemed really close. With a shrug he stood back up and gave Pluto's leash a small tug. He wondered why they were fighting…

oOo

"What took you two so long?" Olette was out on her patio with Pence, both of them lounging on lawn chairs eating sea-salt ice cream.

"We ran into someone I know," Roxas explained, purposely not mentioning the fight between Hayner and himself.

"Really?" Pence said, sitting up in his chair. "Who was it?"

"Some freaktard named Demyx," Hayner answered and sat down heavily on his usual chair. He held out a hand to Olette for an ice cream.

Olette ignored his silent demand and smiled up at Roxas as he took his own seat, pulling out two popsicles from the cooler next to him. He threw one at Hayner as he opened his own. "Is he someone you met today at school?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah," he replied with a shrug, "We have fifth hour together." Suddenly Roxas sat up with a surprised 'oh' sound. "You guys won't believe what we have to do in that class." He took the next five or so minutes to explain the basic concept of this strange Music Appreciation class, before he looked to his bag with a groan. "And that reminds me. I have about two hours worth of homework today, and I even got it 'easy' for being the new kid."

Pence's brows furrowed. "Wow, Rox. And you said that you don't have to wear uniforms to Oblivion High? That's strange," he said with a thoughtful glance to the sky before returning to sucking on his ice cream.

Hayner sighed, "So that means you have to leave soon, huh? Don't you think you don't spend enough time with us already?"

"I don't remember you being so high maintenance."

"I'm _not_."

"Then stop acting like I have to hold your hand all the time."

"Guys!" Pence said, waving his arms about as he sat up further in his chair, "Please don't fight."

"I do _not_, Roxas!" Hayner yelled, pounding a fist on the armrest of his chair. "Dammit, this is all your fault! You're the one that keeps leaving us!" Everyone grew silent as the blatant accusation was thrown into the air.

Roxas stood from his chair slowly, staring Hayner down with an emotionless expression. He wasn't mad, or upset. In fact he felt… hurt. Something he hadn't felt in a very long time. "If that's how you feel…" he said as he picked up his bag and skateboard from the ground, "I just won't come back this time. So you don't have to worry." Before anyone could move to protest, he ran. He ran even though he could hear Pence and Olette call after him, their voices high and worried, he ran as his cell phone went off, as traffic whizzed past him relentlessly.

He wasn't sure what else he could do but run.

oOo

**Hmm. A lot of Roxas in this section. More on the family in the next one though. :D**

Is this the part where I beg for reviews? XD


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** This fic here is mainly rated for **vulgarity**, sexual references, use of **drugs** and **alcohol**, notty words, reality, **sex**, partner switching, my retardation, confusion, **lengthiness**, etc., etc., and the usual. XD Parings are Akuroku, Cleon, touches of Soriku and Zemyx, and maybe some others in later chapters. A lot of one sided teenage crushes.

School starts on Monday… I could NOT be more excited… T.T

Anyways, you're all so beautiful! Haha. After such lovely feedback, I decided to post another chapter earlier than usual. :) Even though on the 11th, when FF wouldn't let me view my reviews… Many, many horrible things came from my mouth, usually followed by a "LET ME REPLY YOU EFFING RETARDED WEBSITE!!"

**Cry For Me, Laugh For Me**

_Chapter Five_

It wasn't until he deemed himself far enough away, did he slow to a stop and took a seat next to a fire hydrant. He set his bag and board down next to himself and pulled out his cell. He had six missed calls, three voicemails, and a text.

All the calls were from both Pence and Olette, as were two of the voice mails. The last he wasn't sure who it was from. He didn't recognize the number. But as soon as he saw who the text message was from, he opened it without hesitation or much surprise.

**What happened?**

**-S-O-R-A**

Roxas sighed. There goes that weird twin sense thing again. Really, he hated it. He didn't exactly enjoy having someone else attuned to his emotions and vice versa. It was more of a problem than anything.

**Nothing… On way home**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

He waited patiently for Sora to respond. Of course he had no intention of going home at the moment. The vibration of his cell was beginning to annoy him.

**Liar. Meet me the beach**

**-S-O-R-A**

**K fine**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

Roxas set his phone onto silent before sliding it back into his pocket. He stood slowly, the exertion from his run beginning to take its effect. He placed his board on the ground and slung his bag across his back. He pushed off and headed for the beach.

As Roxas skated through the city, his over weary mind just seemed to shut off. Nothing went across his mind as evergreens and apple trees turned into palm trees and ferns. Suddenly he hit sand. His board shorted out from underneath him and he jerked forward, stumbling until he fell on his hands and knees. Roxas stood and rubbed his hands on his shirt, hissing at the burning sensation, before picking up his board and heading for Sora's favorite spot on the beach.

The beach was pretty much empty. It was bordering on six p.m., and the weather was still too cold for swimming, it being mid January.

He found Sora already sitting on the horizontal growth of a palm tree. He threw his stuff down at the base of the tree and climbed onto the 'branch' next to his twin. When nothing was said, he decided to take a closer look at his twin; tan skin, dark hair (even if it wasn't natural), and a cheery disposition. Sora had always been his opposite, but it was during moments like these that Roxas always realized that they were more alike than people tended to think.

Sora was still staring out at the vast ocean. A small bruise from last night had formed on the edge of this cheek, disappearing into one of his sideburns, it was nearly invisible.

"You okay?" Sora asked at last, turning to face his brother with a worried expression.

Roxas sighed and began to swing his legs nervously beneath himself. "Let's just put it as worst day ever."

Sora looked away, back towards the ocean. "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah." Roxas looked down at his shoes; bittersweet memories were sprawled across them. He kicked them off with a scowl.

The two boys were silent for a long moment, both absorbed in their separate thoughts.

"Roxas?"

"Hm?"

"You don't want to tell me… do you?"

Roxas shook his head. "Just like you don't want to tell me," he said brushing two fingers over the fading bruise on the side of his twins face.

"U-uh… R-Riku wasn't watching where he was throwing… a-and…"

Roxas raised a brow. "Riku was throwing tree branches?" Sora flushed and looked away. "Sora… No more secrets between us, okay?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry Rox. I mean, I should've told you but—"

"It'll be fine if you tell me now Sor."

Sora seemed to slump. "Okay." He pulled Roxas closer as a particularly cold breeze passed them by. "Kairi and I… We were dating, for awhile."

Roxas was, to say the least, shocked at this news, how had he not known? But he kept his cool and motioned for Sora to continue. "So, you _were _dating. What happened?"

"Well… She wasn't really happy to find out that we were transferring. She kept telling me that if I _really _loved her, that I would try and find a way to stay at Destiny with her… but…" he sighed long and hard, "It was just… I guess I didn't _feel _for her like that, you know? I mean, it's not that she isn't great! I just don't think that she's _the one_."

"So what did you do?" Roxas asked. His eyes were locked on a distant spot on the horizon, finding that he couldn't pull his eyes away.

"I told her just that." Roxas flinched a little, just for Kairi. "She uhh… didn't take it too well. She slapped me so hard I fell over. Took everything Riku had to hold her back." He gave a short, dry laugh. "I seriously thought she would kill me for a few seconds. But, before I could apologize or anything, she ran off crying. Riku told me to wait for her to cool off some before trying to talk to her."

"Have you tried?" Roxas asked out of curiosity. This was a bit hard for him to swallow, but he knew Sora wouldn't lie to him like this. When Sora lied it was always lame, like: I tripped and hit a tree branch, or I wasn't paying attention to the time even though I have a habit of looking at my watch every two minutes.

"Earlier today, yeah. She just hung the phone up without answering."

"Harsh." Roxas looked up to the sky. "I made the biggest mistake of my life," he said in a somewhat distant voice, "I probably lost three of my greatest friends today."

Sora suddenly stopped fidgeting and looked at Roxas with wide eyes. "What are you talking about?"

With a great sigh, Roxas told Sora about how he and Hayner had gotten into their scuffle in the grass; how they thought they had solved their problems by just blowing off some steam, about the fight that had occurred at Olette's place. He found it hard to explain why he had left like he had after what Hayner had said, but Sora seemed to understand completely.

"Rox…" Sora bit his bottom lip before pulling his brother into a hug. "I'm sorry," he said over his brother's shoulder. "Have they tried to call you or anything? Or are they really that mad?" he asked as they pulled apart.

"Oh!" Roxas pulled out his phone and went over his voicemails. "They left me some messages earlier, but I didn't listen to them or anything." He set his phone on speaker and began to play the messages.

'_Roxas?' _It was Pence, his voice was soft. '_Roxas, where did you go? Please don't be mad at Hayner… he didn't mean what he said and you know it. Please? I… I don't want anything to happen to us.' _There was a strange gurgling noise before the message ended. Sora looked to Roxas, who was just staring at his phone with a blank look.

'_R-Roxas?' _This time it was Olette. '_Roxas where are you'? _Her voice was pinched and she kept a constant sniffle. '_Roxas, I'm so sorry! P-please, don't do anything stupid. I'm just so sorry. Come back…' _She began to cry into the phone, small sobs echoed as she choked out the words 'come back' over and over until the message time ran out.

"Roxas…" Sora said as the message ended. "Maybe you should—"

'_Hey Roxie! It's Rikku! That payphone idea is freaking genius! Did I tell you that? Heh, he is soooo pissed I bet! I mean, Roxie, this is so badass! I love you so much right now. I'll see you tomorrow and tell you more! Bye-bye!'_

Roxas smirked. Score one for Roxas. Negative three for Riku. When he began to take a tally score and of what, he wasn't sure. But he really did like beating Riku at just about everything.

"Hey Roxas?"

"Yeah?" He looked up at Sora to find the other smiling.

"Who's that?"

"Rikku –with two k's— she's in my fifth hour." He shrugged. "She's cool, just overly hyper."

Sora kicked off his own socks and shoes before hopping down onto the sandy beach barefoot. Roxas watched for awhile as Sora moved towards the shore before peeling off his own socks and sliding from the branch.

"So…" Sora started as they made their way to the water. "Did you have a good time at school then?"

Roxas stayed silent as small waves lapped at his bare toes. Did he have a good day? He wasn't really sure. "I guess. I dunno."

"You… don't know, huh?" Roxas shrugged and kicked at an oncoming wave. "Let me guess…" Sora stretched back and tapped his chin in mock thoughtfulness. "You were so ready to get out of there that you didn't stop to have some fun."

Roxas grunted. "So? Did you?" Of course he did. What a stupid question.

"Of course!" Sora announced. He jumped into a larger wave and succeeded in splashing Roxas' pants.

The mid-January weather had done nothing to warm up the waters of the ocean. Roxas gasped and immediately tried to pry the wet material from his skin. "Damn it, Sora! That's fucking cold!"

Sora laughed and kicked up some more water. "I know," he said with a grin, "I was just smart enough to wear shorts today, so my clothes don't get wet."

Roxas could feel his mouth fall open. He almost wanted to declare that as the most stupid thing he'd ever heard. "Whatever," he grumbled with a shake of his head. He moved away from the water and dancing Sora to avoid any more moisture. The wind on the other hand, seemed to pick up and before Roxas knew it he was shivering and calling for Sora to go home.

"Yeah, yeah Rox. You can be such a baby sometimes," Sora said happily as they picked up their discarded socks and shoes.

"It's fucking cold. Sora, so help me if I get sick I swear I'm going to—"

"Hey, Rox. You know it looks like you peed your pants? I mean it even goes down the inside of your legs."

"Wha--?" Roxas turned to his brother, surprise written on his face. The surprise soon turned to anger when a bright flash and a click caught him off guard. "You did not."

"Most certainly didn't," Sora chirped as he help up his camera, "And I most certainly am not recording you either."

"Why the _fuck _do you carry that thing around with you?" Roxas spat as he grabbed his backpack and skateboard. "What do you mean you're not rec— Sora turn that damn thing off!"

Sora erupted with a shout of glee as he took off running, with Roxas giving chase. Sora pointed the camera up at his face instead of the ground ahead of him. "And this everyone," he said, "is how you get Roxas to exercise." He pointed the camera behind him towards, where he hoped was Roxas, who shouted something that the camera couldn't _quite _pick up. "If you didn't catch that," he panted, "he just yelled: you two-timing shit brick, I'm going to break my board over your head if you don't give me that… donut!"

He stumbled slightly before continuing his run, mumbling that he'd lost one of his socks. "Yes!" he continued dramatically, "I have a donut in my hand and Rox wants it. He definitely doesn't want to bash my skull in on the cement, as he just claimed, because I splashed him and now he looks like he wet himself." He positioned the camera back to Roxas, not knowing that the other was taking the time to make many, many rude hand gestures. "And here's our stop," Sora said, panting heavily now, "Roxas has just run the entire quarter mile from the beach to our lawn. Congratulations Roxas!"

At that moment Roxas came around the bend. He threw down his shoes and board before grabbing Sora's camera roughly. "I swear Sora, if I can't find the off button on this piece of shit—"

"Roxas…"

"I'm going to smash it into little tiny pieces and throw it into the furnace and—"

"Roxas!"

"What!" Roxas stopped fiddling with the camera and looked to Sora, who was standing still, a looked mixed of fear and worry lining his face.

Sora lifted a hand and pointed to their front door. The screen door was torn off two of its hinges and the wooden door was open. Roxas held Sora's camera up to his eye and started taping the damage.

"Who could have done this?" Sora asked as he tried to pull the screen door open, but its final hinge gave out and it fell, startling a squeak out of Sora, who jumped back out of the falling doors path.

"Did you lock the door this morning?" Roxas asked. His voice was calm even though on the inside he was as scared as Sora was showing.

"Y-yeah." Both the twins walked inside slowly, Roxas took quick note with the camera of the missing door handle. "Well," Sora said once they were standing in the center of the kitchen, "at least they didn't destroy the place."

"Way to be positive," Roxas said with a roll of his eyes. "Is anything missing?"

Sora gasped and bolted for the living room. Roxas followed slowly, documenting everything. "Oh thank goodness," Sora said. "They didn't take the TV, or the 360… or the computer. I think these robbers are crazy! This is the first thing I would've gone for."

"Right… There's a huge slash on the couch though." Roxas ran his finger along the yellow fluff that was now protruding from the gash.

"Yikes! Mother is going to flip; this thing's leather."

"Nothing some duct tape won't fix." Sora nodded. They stood around for a few more moments. "So… if they didn't take any of the electronics… Money?"

Sora shrugged, "Jewelry?"

"Mothers room?" they asked in unison. Quickly they rushed up the stairs to where all the bedrooms were.

They stopped in front of the only white door in the house, before opening it slowly. Roxas had only been in his mother's room a handful of times. Sora went in first, Roxas followed.

"I don't see anything wrong," Sora said with a relieved sigh.

"Check out the safe. Look, there are some cuts and scratches all over it. Someone tried to pry it open."

"This is just too freaky, Rox. I mean, who could imagine someone breaking into _our _house?"

"No one ever does," he said as he turned off the camera and handed it back to Sora. "Guess that thing can come in handy every once and a while."

Sora gave a half hearted laugh. "Guess so."

"Sora! Roxas! Where the _fuck _are you two?"

"And now Papa bear's home, what should Mama bear and Baby bear do? Hide? Because Mama bear seriously wants to hide," Sora said in a partially gushy voice and partially nervous one, trying his best to lighten the gloomy atmosphere.

Roxas sighed. "Whatever. He'll find us one way or another. Let's just get it over with."

Slowly the twins made their way down the stairs and into the kitchen where Cloud was sitting, drumming his fingers on the table impatiently. He waited for Sora and Roxas to sit down before speaking in a low, angry voice, "What, exactly, happened to the door?"

Sora looked down at the table and began to draw little circles on the surface with his finger. "Someone broke in," Roxas said bluntly, causing Cloud to blink and Sora to dip his head down further.

"You've got to be kidding me," Cloud said with disbelief, "You've got to be fucking _kidding _me."

"But," Sora said, his voice shy, for an angry Cloud was a scary Cloud, as well as a potentially dangerous Cloud, "we don't think they took anything, I-I mean everything's still here; electronics, furniture, jewelry, the safe…"

Cloud rubbed his temples. "Fuck." He sighed. "Fuck, fuck, _fuck_." He stood up with a loud scratch of his chairs legs and began to pace the room. "Do you realize how much that is going to cost to get fixed? I mean I could do most myself, but I'll need new locks and some hinges and-" he paused his pacing, looking up at the ceiling. "Roxas?"

"Yeah Cloud?"

"Did you check our rooms yet?"

"Well, no." Cloud pulled slightly on his hair and headed for the stairs, Roxas followed with mild concern. "Why?"

Cloud didn't answer as he swung his bedroom door open and began rifling through his stuff. Roxas stood and watched from the opened doorway. Each time Cloud moved from area to area he let out a string of colorful curses. And people wondered where Roxas got his… creative, word choice from. "Fuuuuuck." Cloud said at last, slumping against a wall.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked from beside Roxas, giving the shorter blond a start. When he'd gotten there Roxas hadn't the slightest clue. He'd have to start paying more attention to his surroundings.

"It's gone," Cloud said with a shake of his head, "The money Mother left us is gone."

Everyone fell silent as they let the information sink in. "A-all of it?" Sora asked at last, breaking the growing tension.

Cloud laughed – a dark and near hysterical sound. Sora moved behind Roxas. "Sora, if you found two dollar bills on the ground, would you pick one up and leave the other thinking that maybe someone who actually _needs _the money might find it?"

"N-no…"

"Exactly! Of course they fucking took it _all_." He pressed a hand to his forehead before mumbling, "What a stupid fucking question."

"Sorry," Sora said, making his way down the hall. Roxas followed and grabbed his wrist as he was about to descend the stairs. "Roxas?"

"Why don't you call Riku? You can stay the night there." Roxas mentally congratulated himself for being able to keep a cool head in these kinds of situations.

"Alright." Sora bit on his bottom lip, something he was prone to do when he was unsure of something. "What about you?"

Roxas shook his head. "I'll be fine here. Plus, someone has to make sure Cloud doesn't become an emotional wreck. We all know he can't handle it."

Sora grinned nervously. "Okay. But if something happens, and I mean anything, call me right away."

"Will do." He ushered Sora down the stairs with that promise and returned to Cloud's room. Cloud was sitting on his bed rubbing his eyes with his palms.

"What're we going to do?" he said when Roxas walked into the room. "Living off what we had was hard enough."

"Cloud…"

"Gas is expensive too… we'll have to start walking. I'll take more shifts at the nursery too."

"Cloud. Shut up," Roxas said with an exasperated sigh.

Cloud did as he was told for the moment, cradling his head in his hands. "Rox. We are so fucked. I mean, we've been fucked up the ass and it's coming out our mouths, fucked."

"That paints a… interesting, image," Roxas said with a grimace.

"I'm so confused. I don't even know where to start."

Sora yelled something along the lines of 'I'm going now' up the stairs and Roxas shouted an okay back. He turned his attention back to Cloud. This really was unfair to the older blond, having to grow up supporting his two baby brothers as well as himself. Roxas hated it. He wanted to help, somehow.

"How about we start with the door? Get that fixed so we can at least sleep. Then tomorrow we'll wake up, go to school and pretend none of this ever happened."

"But—"

"Then, when I get home, I'll call Mother and see if she will wire us some money. Alright?"

Cloud sighed and stood up. "Yeah," he said. He stopped next to Roxas. He felt grateful to his youngest brother, but he couldn't help resent that it was _Roxas _taking care of _him, _instead of the other way around. His hesitation grew awkward so he reached out and clapped Roxas on the back, before going downstairs.

Roxas watched his brother leave before going into his own room. He was pleasantly surprised to find that everything was exactly where he had put it. He could be pretty anal at times.

He closed the door behind himself and locked it. After waiting a few moments to make sure Cloud was still downstairs, he crawled halfway under his bed to pull out a thick black notebook with an X faced smiley taped onto the front in red electrical tape.

He flipped it open to his current page. **January 14, 2008 **(A/N: Just want to point out really fast that 2008 is the year I began to write this fic… :D)it read at the top. He began to fill out major events and a few minor ones into each of the appropriate hour slots, using text messages that he received as reference for time, before systematically clearing out his mail box.

Roxas had a motto that he lived by. It was that "people who tell the truth don't have to have good memories". And Roxas lied… a lot. He was just short of conniving. He also hated getting caught in the act of lying, which was why he kept the date book. So he didn't have to remember everything and could still plan out a foolproof lie.

With a sigh he closed the book and hid it carefully back under his bed. He unlocked his door and cussed it out when it got stuck momentarily because he had forgotten to lift it, and went downstairs to make himself something to eat.

When he got to the kitchen, Cloud was finishing up on the door handle. He opened the fridge and took a glance at the clock on the microwave. Nine p.m. Just how long was he at the beach? He shrugged before settling on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich… or three. He was hungry. He still hadn't had lunch either. He'd have to start packing his own granola bars with him or something.

"Want one?" he asked Cloud as he set out everything he needed.

"Yeah," Cloud said as he tested the door, opening and closing it several times before letting out a sigh, "No jelly."

"I know." He set to making Cloud's sandwich first. "I still can't believe you don't like jelly," he said more to himself than to Cloud.

Cloud grimaced slightly. "Too thick and slimy."

Roxas shrugged, finishing up his sandwich and handing Cloud his. "I guess I just like it thick and slimy," he said before taking a bite. Cloud stopped in mid-chew to give his youngest brother a strange look. Roxas furrowed his brows and thought back to what he said, finding nothing really wrong with it. "What?" he asked at last.

Cloud snorted out a laugh before going into the living room with his sandwich and plopping on the couch. Roxas leaned against the table as they ate in silence, Cloud tracing the slash in the couch with a gloved finger.

"Go to bed runt. It's passed your bed time."

Roxas looked at the clock. It was only getting to be nine twenty. He raised a brow before nodding. "Sure thing _mom_," he said with a roll of his eyes. He figured that Cloud just wanted some time alone. It didn't matter anyway. He was exhausted. It had been a long, terrible day.

When he got up to his room he slipped on a pair of cotton pajamas and crawled into bed, nestling himself deep within his blankets. "Worst. Day. Ever." He mumbled before falling asleep.

oOo

Cloud woke up on the couch with a grunt the very next morning. His neck was sore and it seemed impossible to turn it to the right. It was the result of a sleepless night on a leather couch that wasn't as long as he was tall.

He went to the kitchen and pulled a box of cereal down from the cupboards. He sighed when he took a glance at the time on the microwave. Seven fifteen. School didn't start until nine. A shower would be a good idea. He pushed away the cereal and went to the bathroom, starting himself a nice hot shower.

When he finished, he breathed a sigh of relief. He felt so much better now, everything seemed that much clearer, and to top it all off, his neck felt fine. After wrapping a towel securely around his waist, he headed for his room, stopping at the bottom of the staircase when he saw Roxas at the table eating the cereal he had gotten earlier.

"Why're you up?" he asked as he wiped a water droplet away from the tip of his nose.

Roxas pointed to the bathroom door with his milky spoon. "S'loud," he mumbled sleepily.

Cloud raised a brow. With a shrug, he shook his head, sending water droplets everywhere, and went to his room to get dressed… in his leather.

Roxas watched him go as he shoveled more cheerios in his face. There was a knock on the door and Roxas was adamant on ignoring whoever it was. That was until Cloud yelled down for him to answer it, completely giving away the fact that there was indeed someone awake in the house.

He stood and went to the door, taking his cereal with him. With another mouthful he opened the door to be met by Mr. Linsky, their overly nerdy neighbor, head of the neighborhood watch committee, or some bullshit like that. Roxas just saw him as their whiny, four-eyed, nosy, goodie-goodie, crap for a neighbor, Mr. Four-Eyes.

"Mr. Linsky…" Roxas said with a mouthful of cheerios. "What are you doing here?"

Mr. Linsky scrunched his nose in distaste. He adjusted his bifocals, ran a hand through his receding hair and cleared his throat. Roxas found the whole ordeal pointless and stupid. The man was just plain ass annoying. "Roxas?" Roxas nodded. "It's good to see you again, boy."

Roxas sighed. "Seriously, what the hell are you doing here?"

Mr. Linsky's eyes narrowed. "Boy, you kiss your mom with that mouth?"

"All the time." Roxas licked his lips. "And she _loves _it." He could feel his stomach drop to his toes in disgust, but Mr. Linsky's face was worth the temporary stomach ache.

The man had taken a step back and his oily face was drawn between disbelief and the urge to blow chunks all over the lawn. Finally the man composed himself and took a step forward to regain his ground. "Don't play games with me, boy. I want answers and I want them now."

Roxas rolled his eyes. He leaned against the doorframe and held his cereal bowl in a more comfortable position. "Well, I can't answer a question that I don't know."

"What happened to your door?" the man said quickly. Roxas shrugged. "You don't know? Did something happen?"

Roxas shook his head, trying to stop a long list of questions that was bound to spill from the man's lips. Mr. Linsky couldn't know about his mother leaving. They could be taken by the state for abandonment; he and Sora were only sixteen. "Nothing like that," he said. He took another bite before continuing, "I was just bored."

"So… _you _did this?"

"Pretty much."

There was a pause before Mr. Linsky puffed out his chest and began to lecture Roxas in an authoritative tone. Roxas just tuned him out and began to eat his cereal, nodding every here in there, not caring if it was appropriate or not.

When his bowl was empty, Mr. Linsky was still at it, talking about juvie. Roxas cleared his throat. "Well, I've got to get ready for school. Great talk. Makes me think about changing my ways." Mr. Linsky smiled and opened his mouth to say something, but Roxas slammed the door in his face before he could.

"Who was it?" Cloud asked as he came down the stairs fully dressed.

"Four-Eyes." Roxas raised a brow at the leather boots, gloves and belts that Cloud had decided to dawn today, along with his usual blue jeans and black sleeveless tee. "Isn't leather against the dress code or something?"

"So?" Cloud said as he began to make his own breakfast.

"Oh, you're so bad," Roxas said sarcastically and went up to his room to get dressed. Today he decided to wear a pair of black skinny jeans and a white collared shirt. He slipped his checkered wrist band on, his rings and shoes that were left by the side of the bed, as he had forgotten to take them off last night. He recalled somewhat about waking up in the middle of the night to sleep them off out of sheer annoyance before falling back asleep.

He spent a few minutes fighting with his hair before deeming it decent enough to be seen in public. With a sigh he tried to smooth down his popped collar, but no matter how many times he tried to fix it, it would always feel wrong against his neck. He usually had Sora smooth it down for him; it was always weird to have anyone else touch his neck. He felt so invalid.

On his way out he grabbed his bag and went downstairs. Cloud was sprawled out on the couch watching TV, remote dangling from his fingers loosely.

"We leave in twenty minutes," Cloud informed him with a tired yawn.

"Okay." He looked around to see if there was anything that could really distract him, other than the TV, for twenty minutes. There was never anything but the news on this early in the morning. He soon gave up his search and sat on the floor, back pressed against the couch. He watched the reporter talk dully about some murder or whatever that had occurred miles away. He closed his eyes and sighed. Maybe going to school wasn't such a good idea. What if the culprit returned to the scene of the crime? What if they came back to take something more while they were out. What if…

"Roxas, stop." Cloud said, breaking the smaller blonds current thought. Cloud kicked him lightly on the head. "Don't worry, alright?"

Roxas took the fingernail he was chewing on out of his mouth with a sigh. "I'm not worried," he lied.

Cloud sighed as well. "You know, you chew on your first fingernail when you're worried, thumbnail when you're nervous and on your lip when you're scared."

Roxas blinked and looked at his hands. Did he really do all that? "Oh," was all he could think of to say. They sat in silence again; Roxas doing all he could to not chew on his nails, until Cloud finally stood up and stretched his tired muscles.

"Let's go," he said as he flicked the television off and tossed the remote haphazardly onto the couch.

The youngest nodded and followed his brother soundlessly to the car, both of them throwing their bags into the back seat before climbing into the front. The entire ride was silent, making Roxas feel tenser then he already was. He had a strong urge to roll down the window and stick his head out in hopes that he would be decapitated by a passing street sign.

Once again Cloud parked furthest as possible from the school, and again Roxas was confronted with the idea that Cloud was anti-social. But unlike yesterday, today he didn't have Sora to link arms with as a comfort. His shoulders slumped in defeat as he trudged behind Cloud instead. He stared at nothing in particular, allowing his eyes to fall heavily wherever they pleased.

He watched the concrete pass underneath his feet for a few moments before blinking a few times and looking up to glance around at all the other cars that began to crowd together the closer they came to the building. He squinted when something reflected into his eye, and recognized almost immediately that it was Cloud's belt, or should he say _his _belt that Cloud _stole_. He glowered at nothing in particular, but noticed the slight way that Cloud would swing his hips in almost a feminine way. Deciding that it was a little more than creepy to be paying attention to such details, Roxas returned to examining the passing cars.

With much uneasiness, Roxas pulled on his collar and followed Cloud into the building. It was his second day of school here and he was still nervous about it. He stopped in the main hall and watched Cloud leave to do whatever he does, and looked around for his twin, who was most likely looking for him as well.

"Roxie!" before Roxas could grasp what exactly was going on, he was enveloped from behind in something between a bear hug and the Heimlich maneuver.

"Guh," he coughed out as his feet left the ground. Flailing slightly he managed to gasp out "down" and was immediately dropped.

"So, what's the occasion?" Roxas turned around to give Rikku a confused look.

"Say what?"

"You know," she said with a flick of her wrist, her braids swishing with the sudden movement, "you gotcher collar popped. When people pop their collars it usually means that ya feel goooooood."

Roxas sighed. On the contrary, he felt quite the opposite. Rikku was in her own little world as she waited for Roxas to respond, swaying to-and-fro to an unheard beat. He couldn't help but notice that she was once again wearing a plain white tee that fit her snugly, showing the color of her lime green bra, along with a short denim skirt that rode low enough to show off the straps of her matching thong. He shrugged off the notion that it would be impossible to bend down in such a getup.

"No not really," he said at last. Rikku stopped swaying and frowned at him, her thin brows drawing down slightly. Roxas waited for the onslaught of questions that he knew would begin to pour out of her mouth like water from a faucet, but the familiar slap of shoe against tile headed in his direction had him turned around, away from Rikku.

"Rox!" Sora was running down the hall towards him, wearing a pair of Riku's wind-breakers and a tee. Roxas braced himself as Sora nearly knocked him over when they collided. Immediately Sora's hands were at his collar, smoothing it down at just the perfect angle. "I swear Rox, what would you do without me?" Sora said a large grin on his face.

Roxas sighed, itching to rub the sore spot on his shin that Sora had unknowingly kicked. "Probably live longer," he muttered darkly.

Sora, sensing his brothers' mood, stopped pouting to put a concerned hand on Roxas' shoulder. "You okay?"

Roxas let out a puff of breath and shrugged his shoulders. He was just a bit stressed out.

"Hey!" Rikku said suddenly from behind them. Roxas jumped as Sora let out a dignified "huh?" He had completely forgotten she was still there. She leaned in close to Roxas, her lips pursed and brows drawn in concentration. After a few moments she swayed to the side and leaned in towards Sora, who really didn't look as uncomfortable as he should. Finally the energetic blonde leaned back with a question on her lips. "Are you two twins?" she asked in an uncertain tone.

"Sure are!" Sora responded with a small puff of his chest. Roxas rolled his eyes at his brother's antics.

Rikku tapped her chin in thought, giving Sora another glance. "Identical?"

Both Sora and Roxas stuttered. "Wha-huh?" Sora said when Roxas found no words. "How…?"

Rikku giggled, a sound almost too high pitched to register in Roxas' hearing. "Well, your faces are like, exactly the same. It's just the hair and skin color that throws you off at first, but, you know, anyone can fake-bake and dye their hair."

Sora gasped. "I do _not _fake-bake!"

"Maybe so," she said bouncing towards Sora, "but you definitely dye your hair. I can see your roots, just a lil'." Again Sora gasped and threaded his through his hair in attempt to hide it. "Oh don't worry Roxie's twin! I used to dye my hair all the time. But see, it's all natural now! Pink just wasn't my color."

Sora took his hands from his hair as he studied Rikku uncertainly. "Are you Rikku? With two k's?"

"The one and only!" the blonde said and resumed her natural bounce. "What's your name?"

"Sora!" Roxas stood on the sidelines as two of the most energetic people he knew talked together faster than he ever thought humanly possible.

Suddenly Rikku stopped bouncing and her face scrunched in disgust. "Uh-oh. It's Mr. I'm-too-superior."

"What?" Sora said with a scratch of his head. He took a quick glance behind himself. "Who? Is all I see is Riku and Axel."

"Yeah," Rikku said distractedly. When both Riku and Axel got within about five feet of the trio, Rikku would take one step back for every step that Riku took forward.

"What are you doing?" Roxas asked at last, just as Riku threw an arm around Sora's shoulders.

"It's the five foot brick wall." Rikku said, looking very disgruntled. "Dont'cha see it? It keeps people who aren't cool enough away at exactly five feet in diameter." As if to emphasize her point, she began to mime where the wall would be in front of her.

"Dammit," Riku groaned, followed by a frustrated sigh, "why are you so fucking crazy?"

"Same reason you're so fucking stupid," Rikku shot back immediately. "But anyway." She turned to the other three in the group with a bright smile. "I gotta jam. Later, Axel, Sora, see you at lunch Roxie."

"Bye Rikku!" Sora said with hesitation, both Roxas and Riku grunted.

"Laters!" Axel called with a wave as Rikku took off down the hall.

"Oh," She paused in mid-step, "do us all a favor and go kill yourself, Riku!" she hollered down the hall before disappearing around a corner.

Riku let go of Sora and threw his hands in the air. "Man, I hate her!"

"Eh, I think she's pretty cool. Keeps things interesting around here," Axel said with a shrug.

There was an awkward silence before Sora cleared his throat. "So… to class?"

"Class," Roxas repeated. "Good idea."

"Oh, wait for me, Rox!" Axel said brightly and chased Roxas down the hall. "Are you ready for the pop-quiz?"

Roxas stopped in his tracks before turning to Axel wide-eyed. "What?" Quickly he reset his pace when someone behind him began to curse not too quietly at him. "What quiz, when and over what?" he demanded.

Axel shrugged. "The one for chemistry, in about…. twenty minutes, over yesterdays reading." The redhead muttered something to himself before smiling. "Did I get them all?"

Roxas ignored Axel's smartass comment in his pre-panicked state. "Shit, shit, shit. I forgot the reading. Dammit. How much longer until class starts?"

"Uhh, twenty or so minutes until warning bell. Why?"

"Perfect." Roxas allowed a grateful sigh to pass his lips before finding a bench, which were placed sporadically throughout the entire school, and pulled out his chemistry book. "Do me a favor?" he asked when Axel sat next to him.

"What?"

"Start asking me questions." He flipped the book open to the necessary page. "Any kind will do." He soon began to skim the page.

"What, why?"

"Because, I memorize things better when I'm trying to ignore something."

There was a long pause from Axel, who was probably trying to decide if he was being insulted or not, before he gave in. "Only if you answer some of them."

"Fine, whatever." The blond muttered into his book.

"Cool, what's your full name?"

"Roxas Strife."

Axel shook his head, "Your middle name…?" No response. "Do you have a middle name?"

"Yes."

"Aha! Then why didn't you say it earlier?"

"I didn't have to."

"Yes you did, I asked for your full name, which includes your middle name." Axel said with a smug smile.

"No, you're looking for my legal name, the one given at birth. Full is just first and last, usually last then first separated by a comma, middle initial if you want."

Axel sighed. "Fucking know-it-all."

Roxas shrugged, eyes still glued to his book, "Not everything. Just most things."

"Fine, what is your legal name?" No response. "Fine! What's your middle name?" Again no response. "You can't just ignore me now!"

"Yes I can."

"Dude, no you can't!"

Roxas suddenly snapped his book shut, making Axel jump. "Done," he stated in a bored tone. "How much longer do we have?"

"I—uh—twelveish minutes?" Roxas nodded and moved to stand, but Axel pulled him back down, a scowl marring his face. "Now hold on just one minute. You didn't answer any of my questions."

Roxas looked to the redhead confused; he'd never seen Axel scowl before. "Yeah, I did."

"No, it was more like you sidestepped them and beat the shit out of them with verbal kung-fu. I didn't learn a single thing about you." Towards the end of his speech, Axel's expression turned from a scowl to more of a hopeless pout.

Roxas felt some sympathy for the guy, and he really did want to make it up to him, but it was only yesterday that he had lost something that he held dear; his friends. And he didn't want to use Axel as some kind of replacement for them. He'd only make himself feel worse.

"Sorry, but, I'm just not the kind of guy you'd want to get all buddy-buddy with." And with that blatant rejection, Roxas stood and headed for class.

"H-hey!" Axel managed to say after a brief moment of shock. "What the hell are you talking about? Roxas don't ignore me!"

Roxas just began repeating formulas and facts in his head as Axel talked. At this rate he was going to ace the quiz.

oOo

**A little longer than usual too. :3**

Even though classes are starting up, updates should still be regular… Or as close to regular as they've been. :D


	6. Chapter Six

**A/N:** This fic here is mainly rated for **vulgarity**, sexual references, use of **drugs** and **alcohol**, notty words, reality, **sex**, partner switching, my retardation, confusion, **lengthiness**, etc., etc., and the usual. XD Parings are Akuroku, Cleon, touches of Soriku and Zemyx, and maybe some others in later chapters. A lot of one sided teenage crushes.

So yeah. I tell you updates should continue to be regular, and then my computer craps out on me. It wanted me to be a lair. :(

I love each and every person that reviews and alerts and favorites. :) I also love hits in general, but the other three make me smile more. Haha.

**Cry For Me, Laugh For Me**

_Chapter Six_

Cloud looked up when the warning bell went off. He pushed off the wall that he was leaning against, in a dark area under the staircase. He had found it on accident while looking for a janitor's closet, in hopes of finding a set of keys to the school. He still had a key ring to Destiny.

The room looked like a dungeon that would be described in a horror book. Cement walls, floor, ceiling, hanging light fixture, one thick metal support beam in the center of the room, cold draft; Cloud loved it.

He knew that there was no way that someone else in this school hadn't stumbled across such a find. Before leaving, he ripped a sheet of notebook paper from his journal and grabbed a sharpie from his bag.

**Whose place is this? **He wrote in thick slanted letters, knowing that this was most likely someone's territory. He spat out his gum, stuck it to the back of the note and attached it to the metal pole. He then left the room and began to head to Creative Writing a few floors up. He was the only one on the stairs. When he reached the second flight the late bell sounded off and instead of going to the third floor he continued up to the fourth.

"Late again?" Leon asked him as he pushed open the door to the detention room.

Cloud shrugged. "I'm not going to run just to be on time." No, Cloud did not run unless it was strictly necessary and Creative Writing definitely wasn't his idea of necessary. He took a seat in a desk opposite of Leon and looked around. "Why am I always the only one in here?"

Leon gave a heavy sigh, "Most seniors have late in, and if they do have a class, for the most part, it's required to graduate." He gave Cloud a searching look. "What class do you keep skipping?"

"Creative Writing," he answered in a bored tone. "I had to take _something _since I have early out."

The tall brunet leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on the desk in front of him. "So that means you have a job?"

Cloud nodded. "Dead-end, but something's got to put food on the table."

For a moment there was a strange silence as Leon locked gazes with Cloud. "I see," Leon said at long last.

"See what?" Cloud scraped his lower lip against his teeth. "I… It was just an expression," he said in a disgruntled tone. Now his possibly _only _connection in this entire god-forsaken school was going to think that he was some kind of poor bastard child… which he was at the moment.

He wished Zack was here. Zack was always good at relieving tension in awkward situations, much like Sora. Cloud shifted in his desk uncomfortably. The silence was starting to get to him, and as much as he liked things quiet, he just wasn't _used _to things being that way. Not with Sora and Roxas around, or Zack and Aerith. With a groan he let his head fall to the desk with an echoing thump. He hissed inwardly at the impact. It had hurt more than he thought it would, but he wasn't going to let it show.

There was a snort from in front of him and he looked up with a scowl, but Leon had a straight face, staring right back at Cloud. Cloud sat back up and flipped Leon off, a snarl forming on his lips. He wasn't exactly in the most chipper mood this morning, especially after last night's events, and work wasn't exactly a stroll in the park lately either.

Leon raised a brow, a tiny smirk forming at the corner of his mouth. "So," he said standing from his chair, "you must think you're pretty…" he paused as if searching for his next word, "bad. You have no idea who you're messing with."

Cloud's spine went ridged with both anger and anticipation. He knew a challenge when he heard one, and he had no intentions of backing down now. "I don't _need _to know who it is I'm about to fuck up," he snarled out.

Leon's smirk only widened as he walked towards Cloud. It seemed he was pleased with Cloud's answer. He extended his hand for Cloud to shake. Cloud eyed it wearily. "What's that for?"

Leon shrugged. "Think of it as a peace offering."

Cloud slapped away his hand. "Fuck you. And fuck your stupid 'peace offering' too. Dammit, why is everyone in this school so fucking fucked up?" he growled more to himself than to Leon.

When Cloud finished, Leon sat on the desk table next to him. "You're pretty fucked up yourself," the brunet offered, "All I did was offer you a place here in this fucked up school, but of course you don't need one, you can handle it yourself…" he paused, eyeing Cloud with his stormy eyes, "or can you?"

Cloud looked away. Did he really have to do this now? The look on Leon's face told him yes. He sighed. He was only here for a semester. Only about four months of torture. Did he really need this 'place'? Is all he wanted to do was fix cars, maybe race some too, why did all of this have to be so damn difficult?

"Fine," he said at last. "Just stop staring at me." The staring was definitely starting to unnerve him. He swore he could _feel _the other's eyes on him.

"Good choice." Leon stood and pulled his cell from his back pocket. "Give me yours," he said as he held out his hand.

Cloud's brow gave an irritated twitch. Why did everyone assume that everyone else had a cell phone around here? He grumbled and fished out his practically unused cell from the bottom of his bag. He handed it to Leon with a grimace. "Don't call, text, or anything. I won't answer. I never use the thing."

Leon raised a brow but continued to fiddle with the two phones. "Then why do you have one?"

"For emergencies," he replied dully.

"Hn." Leon handed him back his phone just as the bell rang. He could tell today was going to be a piss-poor day.

oOo

Roxas' head hit his desk in second hour. He'd lost interest in what Professor what's-her-face was saying. He'd already gone over this chapter at Destiny, and strangely enough they used the same text books for this class. It didn't help that Axel was sitting next to him giving him strange glances throughout the lecture.

Is all he wanted to do was go back home and crawl back into his bed, and possibly play some Halo. Yeah, Halo sounded good right about now.

"And that, class, is the difference between state and federal taxes. Now remember that you have a test on Friday. Do whatever." The woman finished off with a dismissive shrug. Roxas sat up and sighed. Now how was he supposed to ignore Axel when the class could do 'whatever'?

He did his best to try and pretend that he didn't see Axel stand up and walk up to him. Nor did he hear the redhead clear his throat impatiently, or the frustrated growl that followed, or…

"Roxas!" he definitely took notice when Axel's hand came into contact with the back of his head.

"Ow, what the fuck?!"

"I'm the one who should be asking you that! What the fuck Roxas, what's gotten into you today?" Axel said with his arms crossed over his chest.

Roxas glared up at the redhead. "What makes you think you've known me long enough to be able to say that?" He was so pissed off, but he didn't really feel like he had the energy to continue being so bitchy. "Just a bad mood," he grumbled out before Axel could say anything in reply.

"More like bad lifetime. I mean, seriously, you're pretty much radiating fuck off vibes. What's up?" Axel sat down backwards in the desk ahead of Roxas, forcing the blond to make eye contact.

"Then why don't you?" he snapped, rubbing his temples. He was starting to get a huge headache… maybe he _should _go home.

Axel was silent for a few minutes, alternating between watching the clock and watching Roxas. "We're going on a little trip," he said as the bell rang, grabbing Roxas by the elbow and dragging him along.

"What do you mean? Where are we going?" the blond demanded as Axel drug him down all three flights of stairs. The redhead was a lot stronger than he looked Roxas realized in exasperation when he couldn't free himself from the others' grip. "Axel! Why the hell are we going under here?" he nearly shouted out when the taller redhead pulled him under the staircase. A few students gave him strange looks as he did so.

"To wait, okay? Just calm down."

Roxas blew out a frustrated sigh. It was hard to be calm when you felt as if you were being kidnapped. He counted to ten around five or six times before letting out a sigh. "Okay, I'm calm. Now, what are we waiting for?"

Axel, who had been watching Roxas, smiled. "For class to start," he said simply.

Roxas felt his stomach drop to his toes. "Wha?" That meant that they would be late to class and he'd have to go to detention and… and since when did he care? He took another soothing breath before locking gazes with Axel once more. "Why? And it had better be worth it."

A large grin crept slowly across the redhead's face. "Oh, it's worth it, don't doubt that." Roxas decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

As the students began to clear Axel pulled out his wallet and grabbed his student ID, moving towards a door that was hidden from plain view by the staircase, Axel slid his ID into the crack of the door, as if he were trying to pick its lock. "This door actually leads outside." Axel explained as he adjusted the piece of plastic in the door. "But you can't open it during passing periods it'll trigger a small alarm back in the office, but once the bell rings the automatic locking system locks the door, but also, when the bell rings, it disables the alarm." He turned back to Roxas to give him a grin.

"So," Roxas said, moving to stand behind him and observe the tallers' handiwork, "you're going to jam the lock, am I right?"

"For the most part, yep!" He looked down at his watch. "And, in tree, two, one…" the bells went off and there was a loud clicking sound. Axel moved to the door, grabbing his ID in one hand and the door handle in the other he pulled the door open and ushered both Roxas and himself outside.

"Neat trick," Roxas admitted with a shrug.

Axel grinned and motioned for Roxas to follow him as he shut the door behind them. "Something Reno taught me a couple years back. Only problem is, is once you get out, you can't get back in."

"I'm not seeing that as much of a problem." - Other than the fact that his skateboard was still in his locker. He followed the redhead up a grassy hill and into the teacher's parking lot. "So," he said uncertainly, "where exactly are we going again?"

Axel glanced back at the blond briefly. "Just to hang out, you seem beyond stressed." He gave a shrug and stuffed his hands in his jeans.

"Oh."

They walked on in silence for a while before Axel sighed. "So… Do you like Halo?" he asked with a disinterested wave of his hand.

Roxas scoffed. "Like it?" he said, puffing out his chest slightly, "I'm pretty much the God of Halo."

Axel grinned, slowing down to fall in step next to Roxas. "Oh you think so, huh? Well maybe I should show you what a _real _God of Halo looks like." The redhead flexed his arms dramatically and gave a little grunt.

"Is that a challenge I sense?" Roxas said slyly, trying to keep his face as disinterested as possible.

"Mayyyyybe." Roxas shook his head at the others antics. "Depends if you'll accept it."

The blond felt a small smirk form at the corner of his mouth. "I'll wipe the floor with your ass."

"You're on shortie," Axel said with a self-reassured grin, he totally had this in the bag.

The redhead led Roxas a few more blocks, chatting away about his prowess in both Halo one and two. Roxas listened on, unbeknownst to the redhead, gathering strategies based on the hints and info that Axel gave away.

Soon enough they stopped in front of a rather large house, dark red in color with white trimming, giving off the air of an old farm house. "This is my place," Axel said with a sigh, "and yes, I know it looks like a barn, we actually have a chicken coop in the back; took our mom years to get the permit for it."

Roxas wasn't really sure what to say to that, so he settled on nothing; instead he followed Axel into the house and to a very spacious and well kept living room. Axel motioned him to a couch and began to pull out a 360 and a couple of controllers from beneath the entertainment center, handing one to Roxas as he began to plug in all the necessary wires.

"Are you really that confident that you'll beat me?" Roxas asked nonchalantly as Axel flicked on the TV and the 360.

"Sure as hell," the redhead said. He pushed the disc into the console and sat down next to Roxas on the couch. "Prepare for the ultimate mortification of your life."

"Whatever you say." Roxas waited patiently for the Halo two disc to load and for Axel to choose the map, mode and weapon sets. "Headlong, eh?" Roxas mumbled to himself amused.

"Oh yeah. Deathmatch… All weapons, to make it fair for you," he sniggered.

Roxas said nothing as the map loaded and the test began. With a quick glance up to Axel's top screen, he determined where the redhead had spawned and the closest weapon to him that he might try for first. He made it to the sniper reach before the redhead and took him out with two shots of his pistol.

"Dude what the hell? Lucky fucking shot Roxas," Axel grumbled. Roxas only smirked and picked up the sniper, deciding to camp the area for the moment. Another quick glance up to see what route the redhead had decided to take before taking him out once again with a well placed headshot. "Dammit Roxas! You're screen watching!"

"So what if I am?" he asked, his smirk growing, "It's really hard not to."

Axel fumed. "Well, _obviously _we can't have a fair match, since you insist on cheating. So, I'll just declare myself winner for not playing dirty."

Roxas snorted. "I don't think so. You got Xbox live on this thing?" Axel nodded. "Good, then tonight at six I'll take you on." He got up and grabbed his bag from the door taking some paper and a pen from within it. "**KeyofDestiny**. That's my gamer tag… and Sora might be on too, his is **KeyBearer**…" he scribbled this down on the paper and handed it to Axel.

The redhead took it and raised his brows, a small chuckled erupting from his lips. "You two obsessed with keys, or what?"

"Hmph. You really shouldn't ask the meaning behind someone's gamer tag."

Axel just shrugged. "Well mine is **FlurryOfFlame**. I'll take you both on; I'll have Reno with me then. He's **ShinraTurk**." Roxas opened his mouth to speak but Axel hushed him with a wave of his hand. "Ah, ah, ah, you shouldn't ask about other's gamer tags."

"I wasn't going to." Roxas deadpanned.

"Oh… Well I'll tell you about mine anyway," the lanky teen said, "I like fire. End of story."

There was an awkward silence before Roxas pulled out his cell phone to glance at the time. "We could be eating lunch right now."

"You just want to hang out with your new girl friends." Axel quipped hastily. He still didn't like the idea of Roxas talking with them.

"It's better than sitting with Cyclops and Lezbatron," Roxas muttered and sunk further into the couch.

Axel chuckled. "Lezbatron, eh? What about Demy?"

The shorter blond sighed, "Demyx is okay, just stupid."

"You'd be surprised," Axel said, a mischievous grin flitting across his thin lips, "He's a lot more perceptive then most people take him for. And even though he can be a real dumbfuck sometimes, he makes up for it in personality." When Roxas remained silent in thought, Axel took the opportunity to continue. "And I also know that I haven't known you for more than a day and a half, but it's horribly obvious that something is eating at you today that wasn't yesterday." He paused, searching for words. "I'm not telling you to tell me what it is; I'm just saying you can if you want to."

A small snarl made its way onto Roxas' lips. "Aren't you just a goodie-goodie then?" he spat out. "What? Do you think that just because I'm the new kid you can take me under your wing and try and be like some kind of idol to me? Well let me tell you something right now so we're clear. I don't need you. I don't need anyone. I can take perfectly good care of myself." He huffed and looked away from the redhead, whose grin had only gotten bigger throughout his speech.

"I see, I see. I think I'm beginning to understand just how you look at things now little Roxie."

"And why," the short blond continued, too angry to take notice of the meaning behind Axel's words, "do you keep calling me 'Roxie'? I hate that name. Everyone that says it should drink a pint of acid."

"People call you Roxie because they think you're cute. I don't see anything wrong with that," Axel said, beginning to get slightly miffed.

"Well if that's the case, I don't see why _you _continue to call me that." Roxas heaved an angry sigh and crossed his arms. This was getting stupid, now he was arguing for the sake of arguing. Both teens said nothing for minutes, each wrapped up in his own thoughts. "Either way," Roxas said at long last, "I should leave; I have important shit to do and whatever… I expect to see you on at six, and also tomorrow at school to make up for Spanish that you made me miss."

Axel stared blankly ahead but nodded and waved Roxas off. "Count on it."

Roxas nodded, picked up his bag and left the house as quietly as possible. It didn't seem right to disturb the temporary peace. When he got outside he wasn't exactly sure where he was, but he knew for sure that he was famished. He paused on the sidewalk and listened for cars; traffic meant main roads and street signs. After a few moments he decided that going right would be best, he followed the street a few blocks before seeing that it joined into a small shopping district. Both sides of the street were packed with little shops and restaurants; it was rather quaint.

He picked a side of the street and began to browse. He _was _hungry and he did have some money on him, he always did exactly for times like these. _La Café Bubimyn._ Interesting name... Roxas thought and stopped in front of the shop. It had a few small tables and chairs outside; the building was made of red brick and in an older fashion. It looked really cool. He caught sight of the hours it was open: 4pm – 10pm. That was strange. Weren't most cafés open at like, 9am and closed before school got out? This one opened after school let out.

He shrugged. No skin off his nose, there were plenty more places to look at along this street. He turned his back to the shop to find himself face to chest with someone else. He backpedaled a couple steps before muttering an apology. "Woah there. You a bit young to be out of school so early, ya?"

Roxas looked more closely at the man he had almost run into. He was tall, tan, and had a bright orange shade of hair that was cropped in a fashion he had never seen before. The man was trying to balance a large bag of groceries on his hip while digging something out of his opposite pocket. "I uh, n-not… really."

The man chuckled. "I thought so." Finally he produced a set of keys from his pocket. "I'm Wakka, you like the look of this café, ya? I'm guessin' that's why you were staring at it so long." He walked past Roxas to the café door and stuck a key in the lock.

"I uh… I'm Roxas," the blond said out of confusion of the situation, "and yeah. I thought it looked cool…"

Wakka chuckled again. "Why don't you come inside, ya? It's a while before we open, but I can make an exception."

Roxas hesitated as the man opened the door and held it open for him. Wasn't there that golden rule about talking to strangers? He felt his stomach growl and decided that meeting someone new over lunch wasn't such a bad idea.

He followed Wakka into the shop. It was brightly lit with crème colored walls, iron cast tables and chairs, and a deep mahogany bar. Roxas moved to sit on the opposite side of the bar in which Wakka was standing. "So Roxas," Wakka began as he set his load down on a counter behind him. "Why aren't you in school today?"

Hook line and sinker. Wakka had Roxas right where he wanted him. Roxas shifted nervously. "Too much stress from transferring," he admitted. "It wasn't even my idea. It was Axel's."

Wakka straightened at the name. "Axel, ya? He's still causing trouble then." He sighed and shook his head. "Well what can you do, ya? When people like Axel want space the only thing you can do is give 'um what they want. They'll get it one way or another."

"I guess. I haven't known him for very long." Roxas sighed and propped his elbows up on the surface before him. "Honestly I don't know how he convinced me to skip school today. I guess I really didn't want to be there." Wakka nodded his head and motioned for Roxas to continue as he went back into the kitchen and flicked on a few lights. "I mean, after all the crap that has been happening lately, I'm surprised no one in my family has tried to commit suicide yet."

There was a clang from the kitchen and Wakka poked his head out. "Now why would they do that? It can't be that bad, ya?"

Oh yes it can be. Roxas thought gloomily. He slumped further into his seat. "I'd rather not talk about it," he said in a tone that both demanded and pleaded at the same time.

"Ah, I understand, ya? Family issues…" the orange haired man continued to mumble but Roxas couldn't catch anymore of it. A few minutes later Wakka came out from the kitchen with a plate and cup, setting both down in front of Roxas. "It's on me."

Roxas stared at the food in front of him. On the plate were a simple ham and cheese Panini and a pickle slice. And with a sip from his cup he recognized it to be Mocha. "Thanks!" Roxas was beside himself with pleasure; this was one of the best meals he'd seen in a long while.

Wakka chuckled. "No problem." After waiting a few moments to see how Roxas liked it, his face took on a serious edge. "I have an offer for you; it ain't official or anything, just an idea, ya?" Roxas looked up at him, confused by the sudden change in the man. "If you're going through a hard time, there may be a place for you here at La Café Bubimyn, ya?" Roxas swallowed, what exactly was happening? Wakka took his silence as a promising thoughtfulness and continued. "I mean, I'll have to take it up with Lu, she's in charge of hiring. But I think you'll pass all her expectations. If you're interested, ya?"

Roxas didn't know what to say. There was a very slim chance of an offer like this. The guy knew he was still in school, that he was young, inexperienced, and going through some tough times. And right now this could be a onetime thing, never to rise in opportunity again. He paused before nodded slightly. "So, you're saying that you'd be willing to hire _me_?" he needed to have it clarified.

"Yep. This café hires students from the two nearby schools. It's quite popular for having," Wakka coughed, "pretty faces, working here." Roxas almost laughed at that. Was Wakka trying to tell him that he was _pretty_? "So, if you're interested, I'll have Lu call you down later sometime for an interview, ya?"

The blond stopped to think seriously about this. It was a job; a time consuming, money making, job. And from the sounds of it, it wouldn't affect his studies too much, since it was meant to revolve around students. "I… I don't see why not," he said at length. He knew Cloud would be completely against this.

Wakka smiled and urged Roxas to finish his meal and for his phone number. When everything had been eaten, discussed and reconfirmed, Roxas left with a thanks and a slight spring in his step. Today was almost a complete turnaround from yesterday and the blond was grateful for it, he didn't know if he could handle another hand dealt in bad luck.

He fumbled around in his pocket for his cell, flipping it open to catch the time. 3:00… Destiny should be letting out soon. He thought with a hint of melancholy. "What?" he cursed to himself. He'd missed three text messages and a voice mail. He had forgotten to turn his cell off of silent this morning. Well fuck. He sat down on a bench on the corner and checked his texts.

**Roxas r u feeling ok? Rikku said u were here this morn. Jw. Yuna**

**- Gullwing **

**Im fne. Bad day. Dnt worry**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

**Rox y'd u skip 2day?**

**-S-O-R-A**

**Dnt feel well. On way home now 4 a nap.**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

**Roxie, 4 shame. U missed M.A. it was g8. B here 2morrow or else!!**

**-E N Luum**

**K, ill ask bout it 2morrow morn.**

**-Closet Emo Rox**

He sighed and went to view his voice mail; he was very tempted to delete it right away when he noticed it was from a private caller. Instead he listened to the message, although no one said anything. There were a few stutters, a sigh, and then they hung up. Roxas gave his phone a weird look before snapping it closed and standing up. Whoever it was shouldn't even have bothered. But now it was time for him to get home to take that nap that he really felt like he needed right now.

He hadn't been to this part of the city very often, but he wasn't completely lost. Unlike Sora he had figured out how to get from point A to point B by using street signs, which happened to be on an easy to follow grid. Slowly he got up from his seat and searched out for the appropriate street to take and trudged towards home.

oOo

**Quick, fast, little note. If I messed up anything about the Halo section, it's because I don't play it **_**that **_**much. Just compulsively… :)**

Thank you, thank you! I hope you enjoyed! :D Review if it pleases you. :)


	7. Chapter Siete

**A/N:** This fic here is mainly rated for **vulgarity**, sexual references, use of **drugs** and **alcohol**, notty words, reality, **sex**, partner switching, my retardation, confusion, **lengthiness**, etc., etc., and the usual. XD Parings are Akuroku, Cleon, touches of Soriku and Zemyx, and maybe some others in later chapters. A lot of one sided teenage crushes.

Yay! An update that's on time! I think… Haha, I'm not sure when they became weekly, but they are now. :)

Enjoy!

**Cry For Me, Laugh For Me**

_Chapter Seven_

Sora stared absently out of the passenger side window of Riku's car. Roxas skipped school and it was only the second day. He was worried for his brother. Mother wasn't going to be pleased and she always did dot on and punish Roxas more than the other two brothers. He also understood that yesterday was really difficult for Roxas, more so than the other two.

"What's up Sora?" Riku asked after a while. "You've been off in your own little world since about fifth period."

"Hm?" The brunet sighed and stretched his arms to the roof of the vehicle. "Yeah, Roxas skipped school today."

Riku gave Sora a side glance. "Doesn't he always skip though? What's so different about it now?"

"Well…" he groaned. Last night he had told Riku everything that happened, but had sworn him to secrecy, though he didn't say a word about Roxas' fight with his friends, he'd promised Roxas not to tell. "I think that all the stress of…" he waved his hands and arms vaguely, "everything, is getting to him."

Riku nodded, his aqua eyes focused on the road. He began to drum his fingers on the steering wheel. "Are you sure you guys'll be alright? I mean with your mother MIA again…"

Sora cut him off with a wave of his hand. "We'll manage, we always do. I just don't want Mother to do anything… rash, to Roxas. You know how it can get."

"Yeah, your Mom can be really out there." Sora nodded. "I never asked, but is she always like that?"

"Like what?" Sora's head quirked slightly and he sat to face Riku.

"Like… A robot or something," he paused a moment to think. "I mean she always addresses herself as Mother and whatnot." With a grunt he opted his voice to go slightly higher, in imitation of their Mother, "Roxas, Sora, come to your Mother, I have something to tell my good children." Sora giggled a little. "You know?"

"Yeah, she's always like that. Always has been, probably always will be."

They were both silent as they drew closer to Sora's house. Riku resumed drumming his fingers before stopping suddenly and looking to Sora briefly. "Not trying to hurt any feelings here, but have you got a hold of Kairi yet?" Sora shrugged and returned to looking out his window. "Sorry, shouldn't have brought it up. I was just curious."

"Don't worry about it," Sora muttered to the window. He scratched at his leg irritably and moaned. "I don't know how you can wear these, Riku. They're hot and itchy."

"It's not my fault that you didn't think to bring some clothes with you last night."

"It was hard to think about _anything _last night!" Sora said quickly and threw his hands up. He really wasn't in the greatest of moods this afternoon, a constant worry for his brothers and the hot, itchy pants could do that to a person. The two boys sat in the irritated atmosphere in the car silently for a few minutes. Neither wanted to talk, but neither wanted to continue being frustrated with the other.

"So," Riku said slowly, dragging the word out with hesitation.

"So," Sora repeated.

Riku sighed heavily. "If there's anything you guys need, just ask, okay?"

"Sure thing, Riku," Sora said in a defeated tone. Of course they'd never ask anyone, even if they _really _needed the help. They were just too proud a family to be asking for favors of any kind.

"Thanks." The tension in the air dissipated and the two rode the rest of the way in a more comfortable silence.

When they pulled into the Strife's driveway, Sora got out of the car hesitantly, ducking into the back briefly to grab his bag. "Thanks a lot Riku. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"You bet," Riku said with an affirmative nod. Sora slammed the car door shut and waved Riku off, just as usual.

Only when the other boy was out of sight did Sora go inside. He kicked off his shoes, tossed his bag to the side and went up stairs to Roxas' door. His breath hitched slightly as he knocked on the door, for reasons unknown to him he was scared shitless about the idea of Roxas not being home at this very moment in time. "Roxas?" he asked quietly to the door, "Roxas, are you in there?"

"Hrrmph," came the groggy reply from within.

Sora's tense stance relaxed almost immediately. "Can I come in Rox?"

"Fine, just go away," he heard Roxas mumble from inside. Sora smiled to himself and opened the door, being careful as to not let it bang against the wall.

He walked across the room and sat gingerly on Roxas' bed in the crook of his twins legs as he was curled up on his side, face buried into the pillow. "Feeling any better?" he asked when it was obvious that Roxas wasn't going to be saying anything anytime soon.

"Mmhmm."

"You know, you should get out of bed soon. You won't be able to sleep tonight if you don't." Roxas only shrugged and Sora let out a sigh. He opted for a different tactic. "Besides, Cloud said that you'd call Mother today…"

"Oh, shit!" Roxas shot out from under his blankets and stumbled towards the open door. "I totally forgot."

Sora laughed, lying down on his twins' bed. "Nice one, Rox. I'm going to change out of these things. Let me know how it goes with Mother."

Roxas nodded and headed downstairs. He grabbed the wireless phone from the kitchen and plopped down onto the couch with a miserable groan. He dialed the familiar number and listened nervously to the ringtone.

"_Hello?"_

"Hello Mother, its Roxas."

"_Roxas? What's wrong, Mother is busy; her children should be behaving while Mother is gone."_

Roxas sighed. "We are Mother. We just have a lot of problems."

She was silent for a few minutes; someone was talking in the background. _"Roxas, tell your Mother about your problems."_

He tried not to twitch, it got irritating, the constant formalities. "Someone broke into the house yesterday. They stole all the money you left for us. I think Cloud's going to have an aneurism."

Again she was silent, although this time there was no voice to distract her. _"I have two hundred. That is all Mother can spare her boys. Tell Cloud to not worry, the bad people will be punished and that Mother will help more when she can. Until then, Roxas and Sora must remain good children. Mother loves you."_

"Love you too Mother," Roxas said, trying not to groan. It's true, his mom was a freak. Honestly, who actually talked in third person anymore? They hung up simultaneously and Roxas sat up further in the couch and stifled a yawn. "Oh goodie," he mumbled to himself before flipping on the television. It was about four thirty now, and he hadn't forgotten about his challenge against Axel at six.

Sora came thumping down the stairs soon after, dressed up as he normally did, scratching at his legs every here and there. He looked to Roxas expectantly. "Well? How'd it go?"

Roxas shrugged. "She said she'd send us two hundred dollars, and to continue being 'good children', as usual."

"Better than nothing, and it should calm Cloud down too." He fell onto the couch next to Roxas, "So, what now?"

Roxas looked from the T.V. to Sora. "You remember Axel, right?"

"Uh, yeah. It's kind of hard to forget that guy. Why?"

"He thinks that he's better at Halo two than us," the twins exchanged similar looks, "he's going to be online at six with his brother Reno. What do you say?"

"I say that we show him whose boss! They won't know what hit 'um! The unstoppable force of the Keys, that's what!" Sora pumped an excited fist into the air. Roxas only smirked alongside his brother. This was probably going to be the most fun he'd had in a while. Even better was going to see Axel's face at school tomorrow; that was the ultimate victory.

"I told him both of our gamer tags, who do you want to log in as?"

Sora pondered this for a moment. "I'd have to say as **KeyofDestiny**. Because your gamer score is way higher than mine. You really have no life Rox." Roxas shrugged, playing outside is for kids. He, Hayner and Pence would always play online together. He sighed. He really missed them, and it had only been a day, maybe half. He wasn't even sure anymore.

"Sure thing, and I have a life, it just doesn't revolve around the beach."

They sat down on the couch and relaxed for a bit. Sora grabbed a pillow and fluffed it repeatedly. "You hungry?" he asked, most likely out of sheer boredom.

"Not really." And that was the truth, he was still content from his Panini and he just plain felt too sluggish to bother eating.

Sora shrugged, tossed the pillow aside and stood from the couch, finger tracing over the duct tape strip. "Well _you _might not be hungry, but I am. If there's anything you want, now's the time to tell me – as I go ever so slowly to the kitchen…" the brunet sang out as he made for the kitchen in slow motion. "You'd better hurry, or I just might not heeaaarrr you."

Roxas groaned. Sora did this every time he was worried that Roxas wasn't eating as a way to get him to eat. "Just get me a soda and some chips."

"I'm on it!" he chirped and went to the kitchen. Roxas settled deeper into the couch, eyes unfocused on the television. An hour and a half until six. He refocused his attention, making a face when he realized that they were watching Spongebob Squarepants. "Roxas, food!" Sora announced as he paraded back into the living room, two sodas, a bowl of Doritos and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his arms. He handed Roxas the Doritos and the Coke, keeping the sandwich and the Fanta Orange for himself.

"I can't believe you drink that stuff." Roxas mumbled, eyeing the Fanta in Sora's hands.

Sora shrugged. "It's good. Like orange soda but better."

The blond rolled his eyes. Orange soda was disgusting. "Every time I see someone drinking that I can't help but to think that they should be wearing a skin tight striped shirt with a matching handkerchief tied around their neck."

"With black skinny jeans and be named Rico, yeah, we've been over this before."

"I'm just sayin'…"

"I'm just disagreeing. Fanta is a man's drink!" Sora said and stuck his nose up stubbornly in the air.

Roxas remained silent for a brief moment, almost not believing what his twin had just said. "Uh, I wouldn't go that far… but whatever."

The twins began munching on their snacks, Roxas staring up at the ceiling instead of watching the freakishly annoying show, bantering back and forth occasionally. At 5:30 Sora got up and pulled out the 360, changed the T.V to the correct channel and handed Roxas the mic and first controller.

"Let's run a couple games while we wait."

"Sure." With practiced ease, Roxas turned on the system, logged in and had the game running. The brothers went through a few games, going over spawn points, vehicle drops, and sniper points.

Sora groaned when the third round started to load. "Are you sure he said six? Because it's getting really close and still not a word." He stretched back and sighed. "Besides, I'm bored. We've been over this like, a thousand times."

Roxas drummed his fingers on the controller in annoyance. Sora was right and if Axel didn't live up to his word… there would be hell to pay. So the blond was relieved when a friend request popped up in the corner of the television screen.

"**FlurryOfFlame**… that's him, right?" Roxas nodded and put on the mic, accepting the request reluctantly. Quickly they joined party chat, which consisted of Roxas, Axel and **ShinraTurk**, Axel's brother that he had spoken of.

"_Yo blondie, ready to get owned?" _He wished that he could kill the redhead.

"Stuff it."

"Hey Rox, his brother has his own 360? Weird." The brunet scratched his head and shrugged.

"Sora wants to know if Reno has his own system."

"Do not!"

There were a couple chuckles. _"Yeah," _Axel said, _"we don't share well."_

Roxas shrugged and waited as the two brothers set up their match. He didn't care. He and Sora had overplayed this game and nothing was much of a challenge anymore.

"_Ready, yo?" _the voice was significantly deeper than Axel's.

"Whatever." As soon as the match started he turned off his mic and concentrated on the game, just as Sora was. It was on one of the smaller maps, so the twins used the simple flush them out of hiding and snipe them – Roxas usually being the sniper and Sora the decoy.

It only took the twins five minutes to have the brothers crying out in frustration. Once the brothers had caught on to their strategy, the twins effortlessly moved into a different one. Sora would spam the use of plasma grenades while Roxas used vehicles to his advantage. The game lasted only for fifteen minutes before the brothers gave up, the timer of the game coming to an end.

Sora laughed at the scores. There had been no way the other two could have caught up to them. "I told you I'd win." Roxas said smugly into the mic once he'd turned it back on.

"_Yeah, yeah, yeah," _Axel said, trying to put it off. _"At least I have a life. So, nyah!"_

The brunet twin giggled. Roxas raised a brow at him. "He's so immature," he said with a laugh.

"Axel, Sora says you're immature."

"_Am not!"_

"Don't tell him what I'm saying!" Sora protested.

"_So are," _came Reno's voice.

Roxas sat back as the brothers began to argue. His eyes wandered to the clock. It was almost six twenty… Cloud would be home in about ten minutes. "Hey, we've got to go. Dinner and whatnot. Later." The blond powered off the system before he could get a reply.

Sora's eyes went wide for a brief second. "Oh! I almost forgot about dinner. I'll get on that right now. How about Hamburger Helper? Quick, easy, cheap… three of Clouds favorite things!" Sora said with a smile.

"Cloud likes things to be easy?" Roxas asked suspiciously.

Sora nodded. "Well yeah. It's easier than being hard."

"Uh, right. Never mind." Roxas almost wanted to laugh at his brother, but before he could Sora burst out in chuckles.

"Ha ha Roxas, I get it. He likes "easy" things and "being hard" ha ha, jerk."

"You said it, not me." Sora punched his twins arm and Roxas just shrugged it off like usual. "Anyway, cook. I'll clean."

"Roger roger." The older brunet began fishing out ingredients, utensils, and the all too familiar box of Hamburger Helper. "You know Rox we eat this stuff like, three times a week. Won't we get sick and die of malnutrition or something?"

Roxas shook his head. Opting to stay silent and quietly clean house before Cloud got home from work. He always chose cleaning over cooking. It's not like he was a neat freak or anything. He just wasn't that great of a cook, even if it was just Hamburger Helper.

The brothers worked in silence, listening to the television show in the next room. God he hated Spongebob. By the time dinner was sitting to cool Cloud had finally gotten home. The older blond slammed the door shut behind him, stopping a second before turning around and checking the door and handle. Sighing, he tossed his schoolbag into a chair and sat at the table, elbows resting on the hard surface while rubbing his temples. There was a grimace set firmly onto his features.

"How was your day, Cloud?" Sora asked as he came up behind his older brother, massaging his shoulders tenderly.

"Fine," the older Strife said. Neither twin said anything to prove otherwise. Roxas went to the cupboards and grabbed the customary plates and cups, being careful not to make any clatter together. Sora finished giving Cloud a quick rubdown, fixed his collar and went to the stove.

"I made dinner if you're hungry?" Two pairs of ocean blue eyes trained onto the tall blond.

Cloud sighed, "Yeah," he said, defeated. He picked up his plate and handed it to Roxas who handed it to Sora. It had become a routine. Sora filled the plate, handed it to Roxas who handed it back to Cloud, who grabbed the next plate and so forth.

When the brothers had finished, the all sat down and ate in silence. None had the urge to say anything – until Roxas had recalled his talk with Mother.

"Cloud," he started uncertainly, he didn't know how Cloud would take the news, and two hundred really wasn't all that much when you thought about it, "I talked to Mother today."

Cloud tensed. It was obvious he had been thinking about it all day, but wasn't sure if he wanted to know the results. "And…?" he asked hesitantly.

Roxas sighed. "She said she'd wire us two hundred tonight, but won't be able to give us any more until later."

The news seemed to please Cloud to a point, he must have been expecting the worst. "Alright," the eldest said shortly, "I want you to pick it up tomorrow after school." Roxas nodded. That was the end of that conversation.

When dinner was finished and the dishes cleaned the three brothers split up to do their own thing, Cloud watching TV, Sora on the phone with most likely Riku, and Roxas to his room. He filled out his planner like usual, and then lay out on his bed. He felt tired, but awake at the same time. And for once, he couldn't wait to go to school. He wanted to see Axel, the look on his face when the redhead admits defeat… Just the thought of it tugged a smile on his lips.

"Hey, Rox?" Roxas looked up his pillow to see Sora standing in his door, the phone receiver buried in his shoulder. "Do you want to come with me and Riku to see a movie?"

Roxas pretended to think for a moment. Of course he didn't want to go, especially if it was just going to be the three of them. One, he'd be a third wheel or something, because whenever Riku was around Sora tended to get absorbed completely into the other teen. Second, Kairi wasn't there to keep him occupied either, she tended to get excluded as well, although not as much as he did. "Thanks, but no thanks; I've got homework to do."

Sora made a 'tsk'ing sound before putting the phone back up to his ear. "He said that he couldn't - has homework." Sora's face scrunched up at something Riku said. "Yeah, well, whatever. I'll see you in a few." He hung up the phone and sighed. "You sure you don't wanna come? You really look like you could use some time away."

The younger blond shook his head. "I'm good, and I really have to do this homework, since I missed most of class today." Sora nodded, trying hard not to pout. He was only trying to help. "Thanks though," Roxas said softly, knowing that Sora had meant well, "I appreciate it."

The brunet gave a grin. "It's no problem! I'll see you when I get back. Later Roxas."

"Later," Roxas called after his brother. When he was sure that the other was gone, he went back downstairs to grab his backpack and hauled it back up to his room. He spent the next two hours on his homework and skimming ahead in some of his texts in classes that he thought he had might have missed something important.

It wasn't until later that night when Sora returned home did he stop working. "Hey Rox," Sora said giddily from his door once again. "I reeeaaally wished you could've come with us to the movie! It was _awesome! _I mean there was action and explosions and loud music and more explosions and awesome!"

Roxas raised an amused brow, "Riku gave you too much sugar," he pointed out. Sora shook his head, making Roxas sigh – it was so obvious. "What movie did you see anyway?"

The question made the brunet pause. "Uh…" he trailed off, putting his finger to his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not really sure," the oldest twin said at last, "but it was cool!"

"Right, well it's half past nine. I'm going to bed, so go away."

Sora pouted. "But Roxasssss, it's not even that late!"

The blond gave a tired yawn, he didn't care how early or late it was he was tired. "Well, if that's the case," he said a small smirk forming on his lips, "then you should have plenty of time and energy to do your homework too."

"Err…" the brunet gaped like a fish at the sudden idea, "Well actually," he gave a fake yawn, "I'm really sleepy too, see ya in the morning Rox!" And with that he ran off to his room.

Roxas just shrugged at the display and changed into a pair of pajamas before shutting off the lights and crawling sleepily into bed.

oOo

When the twins got to school the next morning, they were greeted by Riku at the front doors.

"Riku!" Sora nearly bounced into the older teens arms, instead stopping short, a large smile on his face. "You're at school on time!" the brunet observed.

Riku nodded. "Yeah, Axel wanted to ask me something, but he hasn't showed up yet."

"Axel, huh?" Sora said slowly, scanning the crowds behind him.

"Speak of the Devil…" Roxas and Sora said in unison as soon as the redhead could be spotted, walking with another redhead around the same height and a ponytail at the nape of his neck. The twins wore identical smirks of satisfaction as the pair approached, making Riku nervous.

Soon the two redheads caught sight of the twins. Quickly Axel whispered something in the other's ear – Reno, Roxas assumed – and sniggered when Reno stuck his nose up and marched past the twins, Axel on the other hand laughed good-naturedly and walked up to the trio, giving Roxas a pat on the back when he was near enough.

"Yo guys, what's up?" Axel draped an arm around Riku's shoulders.

The smug looks didn't leave the twins faces; they stared hard at Axel just waiting for him to admit defeat. Axel on the other hand was doing his best to not give in. He knew what they wanted, but he pretended not to.

"Axel…" Riku said at last, breaking the strange silence, "Whatever did or didn't do, admit it. They won't stop until you do, trust me on this."

The lanky teen looked to his friend. "How long can they keep it up? Honestly? Minutes, hours…?"

"Weeks," Riku said with a sigh, "that's the longest I've ever managed."

Axel seemed to ponder this seriously; finally he heaved a heavy sigh, "Fiiiiiine! You win, I lose, boo-hoo." Sora immediately broke out into a brilliant grin, while Roxas looked positively smug. "Twins… go figure."

"So Riku," Sora went on saying, "did I tell you how Roxas and I completely destroyed Axel and his brother in Halo?"

"Well, no... Not that I'm surprised but…"

Sora's grin only seemed to get wider, "C'mon! I'll give you an in-depth explanation of how we wiped the floor with them…" The brunet boy led the taller away continuing to talk animatedly to the other.

Axel looked to Roxas, a strange expression on his face. Roxas on the other hand was as close as he'd ever been to laughing outright. "What was all that about?" the redhead asked finally.

"In many ways," Roxas said, his smug smile twisting oh so evilly, "Sora is like a dog. Loyal, obedient, easily trained…"

The redhead gave a long whistle. "Geez Rox, your own brother? I mean, I figured you were a sadistic little bugger, but wow, just wow."

The blond looked up at Axel. "So what? We were ten at the time anyway… Why would I scold him for having a quality that benefits me so well?" For a brief moment Roxas stared at Axel, expecting an honest answer.

Axel barked out a laugh. "Do you think… maybe… you could 'teach' Reno a few things for me?"

Roxas rolled his eyes before heading into the building, becoming more and more accustomed to Axel tailing him closely. "To be honest," the blond started as he began to weave through crowds, "I still haven't heard you say what I want to hear. Not that it matters."

The redhead tilted his head curiously at his shorter companion. "And what, exactly, is it that you want to hear from me?"

"Just that I was right."

"About…?"

Roxas smirked lightly. "About being better than you at Halo."

"You're still stuck on that?" Axel whined. He pouted at Roxas as they made their way up the first flight of stairs. When the blond showed no sign of giving in he sighed. "Fiiiiiiine! You're the _real _God of Halo! Happy now?"

"Very," the blond replied smugly. The pair sat on what was now quickly becoming _their _bench, a little ways from their first period.

"So, what now?" Axel asked, "There's still about twenty minutes until class starts." The taller looked down at his watch to double check, confirming his assumption with a nod of his head, shaking the rippling spikes of his hair.

Roxas just shrugged. "We-"

"_Raooooo_! Roxie! Whatcha doin'?" Both Axel and Roxas looked up to see the energetic Rikku approaching them. She was in the same get up as usual: tight white tee, a short pair of bottoms, strangely decorated boots and a matching navy blue underwear set.

"We're just chillin' before class starts," Axel supplied with a grin. He really did like Rikku; she was a fun and interesting person – without a doubt.

Rikku's blue green eyes sparked with interest before she plopped down next to Roxas. "I thought you were a sophomore, Roxie. _Nekrd?_"

"What?"

"What what?" Rikku shot him a confused glance; he could feel Axel give him the same look from behind.

"What is "rao" and "nekrd"?"

Instantly Rikku's mouth made a little 'o' shape. "You don't know Al Bhed?" Roxas shook his head negatively. "Ohhhhh, I see! That's right! You're not from around these parts! _Uv luinca!_"

At Roxas' bewildered look Axel spoke up. "Just around here is an area of town that is mostly populated with Al Bhed that err… migrated – if you can call it that – here a few decades ago. They were a nomadic tribe… technologically bent people, still are too."

"Oh," was all that Roxas could think to say. "I've never met an Al Bhed before… I didn't know about them…"

"Pshaw!" Rikku flipped her hand at him in a girly manner, "You've met me, right?" Roxas nodded. "So then you've met an Al Bhed! Although I'm not a nomad or whatever, I was born here, but we still practice our language and culture back home."

"I had no idea…" Roxas trailed off, trying to wrap his mind around this radically new idea. An entire race of people that he had no clue existed until now…

"Either way," Rikku said with a dismissive shrug, "aren't you a sophomore, Roxie? What are you doing on the third floor?"

Axel spoke up for the thought filled blond. "He's in Chemistry this hour. He's taking a lot of junior level classes."

"_Ur oayr_! Paine and Yuna mentioned that at lunch the other day." She gave Roxas a wink. "Which reminds me, you're going to have to explain to us why you were gone yesterday later."

"Alright," Roxas said at last, finally finding his voice, "I'll see you at lunch."

"_Caa oy_ _drah! _See ya then!" she called out and left the two in her wake.

"Hey," Axel said, his voice bordering on a whine.

"What?"

"How come she can call you Roxie and I can't?"

Roxas couldn't wait for the day to end.

oOo

**I love Sora. :)**

Thanks for reading everyone! :D


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